UNCENSORED 

DIARY 

^yrom  the 

CENTRAL  EMPIRES 

ERNESTA'DRINKER-BULLITT 


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Given  by 

Robert  Lountsier 


AN  UNCENSORED  DIARY 


AN 
UNCENSORED  DIARY 

FROM  THE 
CENTRAL  EMPIRES 


BY 

ERNESTA  DRINKER  BULLITT 


Garden  Citt  New  York 

DOUBLEDAY,  PAGE  &  COMPANY 

1917 


Copyright,  1917,  by 
Doubled  AY,  Page  &  Company 

All  rights  reserved,  m eluding  that  of 

translation  into  foreign  languages, 

including  the  Scandinavian 


siEr  OF 


■^       .,.-\  n 


FOREWORD 

The  portion  of  my  diary,  which  is  pubHshed  in 
this  book,  was  written  without  thought  of  pubHca- 
tion.  Remembering  how  greatly  the  diary,  which 
my  great-great-grandmother  EHzabeth  Drinker  kept 
during  the  Revolution,  had  interested  her  descend- 
ants, I  recorded  for  my  great-grandchildren  my  ex- 
periences last  summer  in  Germany,  Austria,  Hungary, 
and  Belgium. 

When  publishers  asked  for  the  diary  a  century  be- 
fore I  had  expected,  I  did  not  attempt  to  polish 
loose-jointed  English  or  to  suppress  any  but  personal 
incidents.  The  pages  of  the  book  stand  as  written 
within  the  lines  of  the  Central  Powers. 

The  character  referred  to  as  "Billy,"  throughout 
the  diary,  is  my  husband,  William  C.  Bullitt. 

Ernesta  Drinker  Bullitt. 

Philadelphia,  January  17,  1917. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Foreword v 

CHAPTER 

I.     Germany 3 

II.     Belgium 117 

III.     Austria  and  Hungary 157 


CHAPTER  I 
GERMANY 


I 

GERMANY 

Copenhagen,  May  H,  1916. 

Once  upon  a  time,  a  thousand  years  ago,  before 
the  war,  one  went  abroad  with  no  more  preparation 
than  a  steamer  ticket  and  an  American  Express 
check  or  two.  Two  days  ago,  we  undertook  to  go 
from  Holland  to  Denmark,  via  Germany.  Before 
daring  to  approach  Bentheim,  the  German  frontier, 
we  were  equipped  with  passports,  thrice  vised;  a 
special  letter  of  identification  from  the  Department 
of  State,  birth  certificates,  letters  to  the  frontier 
authorities  from  Count  Bernstorff  and  the  German 
Minister  at  The  Hague,  eighty-seven  other  letters  of 
introduction,  two  letters  of  credit,  and  a  Philadelphia 
police  card. 

We  entered  Germany  at  six  in  the  afternoon  laden 
with  the  milk  of  human  kindness.  We  were  broad- 
minded  before  we  touched  Germany.  We — particu- 
larly   Billy — were  ready   to   understand    Germany. 

Billy  said  he  could  see  their  point  of  view  perfectly. 

s 


A 


4  An  U licensor ed  Diary 

A  young  man  got  into  the  compartment.  When 
we  passed  the  first  German  mile-post,  the  young 
man  opened  conversation  by  explaining  how  much 
he  hated  America,  because  she  was  selling  muni- 
tions to  the  Allies.  He  never  smiled.  Neither  did 
any  one  else  on  the  train.  Nor  did  any  one  in  the 
deserted  Hamburg  station;  nor  any  one  in  the  empty 
Atlantic  Hotel.  Billy,  being  of  a  chameleon-like 
nature,  had  become  solemn.  He  did  little  things  as 
if  they  were  important,  and  he  began  to  order  me 
around  and  look  as  if  he  expected  me  to  carry  my 
own  suit-case. 

In  the  Atlantic  Hotel  we  asked  to  have  supper 
served  in  our  room,  and  were  told  no  food  could  be 
had.  True,  it  was  midnight,  but  this  was  Ham- 
burg's greatest  hotel.  Once  upon  a  time  that  was 
the  hour  for  light  and  gaiety.  I  tried  to  look 
pathetic  and  rich.  The  waiter  "fell,"  and  brought 
us  two  blood  oranges.  We  feared  to  go  to  sleep 
lest  we  talk  indiscreetly.  That  a  dictograph  was 
hidden  in  the  heater  was  a  certainty,  in  Billy's 
mind. 

Early  the  next  morning  we  were  awakened  and  de- 
scended to  an  empty  breakfast  room.  A  blond  and 
brainless  waiter,  aged  seventeen,  asked  for  our  order. 


An  Uncensored  Diary  5 

"Coffee,  milk,  oranges,  bacon  and  scrambled  eggs, 
chocolate,  rolls,  and  butter,*'  said  Billy,  confidently 
and  glibly.  The  blond  one  retired  to  take  counsel 
with  a  plainclothes  man  in  a  derby  hat.  Returning 
to  us,  he  said: 

"There  are  no  more  oranges,  there  is  no  milk,  nor 
is  there  bacon;  the  chocolate  is  made  with  water  and 
we  do  not  have  rolls.  You  can  have  eggs,  but  you 
cannot  have  them  scrambled — to-day  is  the  day  when 
we  boil  eggs.     Will  you  have  four  or  six,  sir.^" 

"Four,"  said  Billy,  humbly. 

The  youth  darted  away  to  have  the  order  counter- 
signed by  the  man  in  the  derby  hat,  and  witnessed  by 
two  under-secretaries.  We  waited.  I  looked  out  of 
the  window  into  the  courtyard.  There  were  no 
plants  in  it,  the  flower  beds  were  empty,  and  the 
fountains  were  dry.  The  rain  knocked  faintly  on  the 
window  pane. 

Our  depleted  order  came,  but  without  sugar  for  the 
coffee.  The  waiter  looked  distracted  when  we  asked 
for  it  and  managed,  after  ten  minutes'  parley  with  his 
superior  officers,  to  get  two  lumps. 

The  taxi  which  took  us  to  the  station  was  another 
memento  mori.  It  had  evidently  been  rejected  for 
military   service  because  of  lung  trouble.     As   we 


6  An  Uncensored  Diary 

crept  through  the  door  of  the  station,  we  met  two 
girls  who  were  smihng — smiHng!  On  the  train  we 
met  only  solemnity,  and  the  whispered  comment, 
"Americans."  Billy  was  losing  some  of  his  broad- 
mindedness. 

At  Warnemunde  we  became  "Number  36."  At 
the  upper  end  of  a  board  shed  we  were  left  to  shiver 
while  the  other  passengers  on  the  train,  beginning 
with  Number  1,  disappeared  through  a  sliding  door. 
There  were  guards  all  about  to  keep  one  from  walking 
anywhere  one  looked  as  if  one  wanted  to  go.  Each 
time  the  door  slid  back  we  saw  trunks,  boxes,  and 
passengers  in  various  stages  of  disruption. 

"Thirty-six,"  called  the  Sergeant  at  the  door.  We 
entered  without  fear,  for  our  baggage  was  innocent  as 
a  nun,  and  the  seals  of  the  other  frontier  were  un- 
broken upon  its  hinges. 

A  young  man  in  field  gray  began  the  examination. 
He  had  been,  before  the  war,  a  goatherd,  I  believe,  or 
maybe  a  chimney  sweep;  but  he  had  the  mark  of 
thoroughness  upon  him.  I  should  like  to  make  a  law 
that  no  American  customs'  inspector  be  allowed  to  go 
to  Germany  in  war  time.  It  would  teach  him  things 
about  examining  luggage  he  never  ought  to  know. 
This  soldier  fell  upon  our  trunks — he  made  no  dis- 


An  Uncensored  Diary  7 

tinction  between  the  soiled  clothes  bag  and  my  white 
satin  dress.  As  he  went,  he  gathered  speed.  He 
whipped  my  blouses  inside  out,  explored  the  feet  of 
stockings,  captured  a  piece  of  soap,  delved  between 
the  bristles  of  a  toothbrush,  thumped  the  sides  of  my 
trunk,  bent  up  my  shoes  and  threw  them  upon  my 
evening  dresses,  then  fetched  up  on  my  underclothes. 
A  pink  silk  garment  was  held  up  and  shaken.  The 
officer  in  charge  cried  out  "combination,"  smiled 
affectionately  at  me,  and  came  to  superintend  our  un- 
packing. Billy  presented  our  letters  to  the  civil  and 
military  authorities  from  the  German  Ambassador  and 
the  Minister  in  Holland.     The  officer  pocketed  them. 

"These  are  to  the  civil  and  military  authorities.  I 
am  a  military  authority,  therefore  I  shall  keep  the 
letters — they  are  to  me,"  said  he. 

"Don't  you  think  that  is  a  trifle  idiotic?"  asked 
Billy. 

Visions  of  a  firing-squad  floated  across  the  bare 
wall.  But  the  officer  merely  turned  upon  his  heel, 
while  Billy  remarked  to  me  that  junkers  always 
thumbed  their  noses  at  reason. 

Then  began  a  period  of  confiscation.  Books, 
writing  paper,  visiting  cards,  pencils  fell  under  the 
embargo.     Billy  bore  these  losses  with  fortitude,  but 


8  An  Uncensored  Diary 

when  his  eleven  tubes  of  hair  tonic  were  placed  among 
the  other  things,  his  manhood  was  undone,  and  they 
led  him  away  bleating  helplessly  to  be  stripped.  I 
was  put  in  the  charge  of  a  female  in  a  red  flannel 
blouse,  who  looked  at  the  soles  of  my  feet,  felt  in  my 
hair,  pried  open  the  back  of  my  watch,  evacuated  the 
inside  of  my  hat,  plumbed  the  depths  of  my  fountain 
pen,  examined  my  clothes,  and  then  succumbed  to  the 
mysteries  of  my  letter  of  credit. 

I  reached  the  outside  world  first.  Billy  was  still  in 
the  hands  of  his  explorer.  I  wondered  if  they  were 
washing  his  back  with  acid  for  traces  of  secret  writing. 
The  boat  whistle  blew  and  still  Billy  did  not  come. 
Every  one  was  on  board  when  he  came  running  down 
the  wharf,  his  necktie  flying,  his  shoe-laces  undone. 

An  aged  ticket-taker  stood  on  the  ferry-boat  at  the 
end  of  the  gang-plank. 

"Are  you  a  German  or  a  Dane.'^"  I  demanded. 

"A  Dane,"  replied  the  aged  man. 

"Thank  God!"  cried  I. 

May  23d. 

Denmark  is  hospitable,  inexpensive,  and  friendly. 
We  have  seen  the  Egans  frequently.  They  have  been 
more  than  kind.     Mr.  Egan  has  been  in  Denmark 


An  Uncensored  Diary  9 

eleven  years — a  longer  period  than  any  other  diplo- 
mat in  our  service  to-day  has  held  a  post.  By  com- 
mon consent,  he  is  the  most  popular  diplomat  in  Den- 
mark. The  other  Ministers  keep  dashing  in  and  out, 
getting  advice  from  Mr.  Egan.  He  is  one  of  the  few 
diplomats  we  have  who  really  fits  his  post. 

We  have  gathered,  in  the  course  of  many  conversa- 
tions here,  some  interesting  facts,  one  really  import- 
ant one:  the  proposed  purchase  of  the  Danish  West 
Indies  by  the  United  States,  which  may  go  through  in 
a  short  while  now.  Denmark  is  called  "the  whisper- 
ing gallery  of  Europe,"  and  there  is  a  good  deal  of  in- 
formation to  be  picked  up  there.  I  say  "we" 
gathered  some  facts,  but  I  had  nothing  to  do  with  it. 
Billy  had  a  few  pearls  bestowed  upon  him,  which  he 
promptly  transferred  to  me.  I  find  diplomats  are  not 
given  to  putting  their  trust  in  women.  Billy  is, 
fortunately,  a  newspaper  man,  and  not  a  diplomat.  I 
can  imagine  nothing  worse  than  being  married  to  a 
man  who  only  tells  you  the  things  which  he  thinks 
he  safely  may,  or  the  things  he  would  tell  anyone — 
which  amounts  to  the  same  thing. 

Among  the  other  qualities  of  a  perfect  diplomat 
which  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Egan  possess,  they  have  that  of 
never  making  a  "break."     Therefore,  they  gave  us 


10  An  Uncensored  Diary 

(principally  me)  what  we  needed — advice  as  to  caution 
in  speech,  behaviour,  facial  expression,  and  etiquette, 
also  warning  us  against  writing  anything  down  on 
paper.  It's  going  to  be  hard  on  me.  I  never  was 
born  to  be  indefinite  I  am  practising  conversing 
diplomatically. 

"Mrs.  Bullitt,  Verdun  has  been  taken  and  Paris 
is  about  to  surrender." 

"  Really .f^  How  curious.  Battles  are  so  interest- 
ing, aren't  they.'^" 

"Mrs.  Bullitt,  if  it  were  not  for  American  ammu- 
nition, the  war  would  have  ended  in  six  months." 

"Yes,  battles  are  dangerous,  aren't  they.'^" 
^\^lereas,  I  might  mention  our  Spanish  war  and  cer- 
tain famous  German  munition  factories.  So,  the 
crest  of  idiotic  amiability  being  reached,  we  move  on 
to  the  weather. 

We  oughtn't  to  stay  here  any  longer,  but  we  can't 
get  up  the  courage  to  attack  the  frontier  again,  and 
every  one  tells  us  we  won't  get  anything  to  eat  in 
Germany — a  fact  substantiated  by  our  own  twenty 
hours'  experience.  Besides  this,  we're  enjoying  our- 
selves, which  is  a  perfectly  good  reason  for  staying 
anvwhere. 

Count    Szcchenyi,    the    Austro-Hungarian    Min- 


An  Uncensored  Diary  11 

ister,  thinks  it  would  be  a  good  plan  for  us  to  go  to 
Vienna  and  Pest,  as  so  little  has  been  seen  of  them 
during  the  war.  He  has  very  kindly  written  to 
people  there  that  we  are  coming.  I  played  tennis 
with  him  this  afternoon  at  the  club,  he  in  his  sus- 
penders and  monocle,  and  I  in  street  clothes,  with  a 
pair  of  borrowed  tennis  shoes  two  inches  too  long  on 
my  feet,  and  a  racket  like  a  spoon,  as  a  means  of  de- 
fence, in  my  hand.  We  have  lived  here  so  much  as  we 
hve  at  home  that  I  shan't  write  any  more  of  Denmark. 
We  dined  at  the  Egans'  last  night.  Mrs.  Egan  is 
famous  for  her  dinners,  and  Mr.  E's  wine  is  supposed  to 
be  very  fine,  though  I  couldn't  tell  old  Port  from  beer. 

Hotel  Esplanade,  Berlin,  May  29tli. 

Act  of  Caution  No.  1 : 

I  left  what  diary  I  had  written  in  Denmark,  where 
I'm  sure  of  its  neutrality  not  being  violated. 

Evidently  when  we  crossed  the  frontier  before,  they 
left  undone  a  good  many  things  which  they  might 
have  done,  but  they  weren't  guilty  of  slouching  on 
the  job  this  time,  and  I'll  bear  testimony  to  it  at  the 
Golden  Gate.  They  kept  our  passports  as  souve- 
nirs. It  was  as  much  as  I  could  do  to  keep  Billy  from 
going  to  our  Embassy  at  half-past  eleven  at  night. 


12  An  Uncensored  Diary 

when  we  got  to  Berlin.  I  must  say  I  should  have 
liked  to  wrap  up  in  the  American  flag  and  sleep  on 
Mr.  Gerard's  doorstep  myself.  The  inspection  this 
time  was  really  too  disgusting  to  repeat.  I  decided 
that,  if  I  ever  again  heard  any  one  say:  "It's  our 
orders,"  I  should  kill  him.  Orders  apparently  mean: 
Be  as  nasty  to  the  man  who  can't  hit  you  back  as  your 
imagination  will  allow.  An  inspection  at  the  frontier 
in  war  time  is  quite  just — all  one  asks  is  to  be  treated 
with  courtesy.  Did  we  love  the  German  military 
after  this,  and  where  is  Billy's  reasonableness  now.^^ 

We  lunched  at  the  Embassy  the  day  after  we  got 
here.  Mrs.  Gerard  is  charming  and  Mr.  Gerard  one 
of  the  most  amusing  men  I  ever  met.  Brusque,  frank, 
quick-witted,  a  typically  judicial  mind,  and  a  typi- 
cally undiplomatic  manner,  he  is  the  last  person  in 
the  world  whom  a  German  would  understand.  His 
dry,  slangy  American  humour,  his  sudden  lapses  into 
the  comic  in  moments  of  solemnity,  his  irreverence 
for  the  great,  shock  the  worthy  German.  That  he 
treats  the  Emperor  in  any  other  way  than  as  a  busi- 
ness acquaintance  is  most  unlikely. 

What  the  Gerards,  or  the  other  members  of  the 
Embassy,  do  goes  over  Berlin  in  ten  minutes.  Pack- 
ing has  been  their  favourite  indoor  sport  all  winter. 


All  Uncensored  Diary  13 

If,  wishing  to  be  prepared  against  a  rainy  day,  they 
hastily  stow  away  a  few  articles  of  value  and  con- 
venience in  a  trunk,  preparatory  to  making  a  hur- 
ried journey — as  they  imagine  often  they  will  do — 
the  fact  is  known  by  every  one  in  the  city  in  half 
an  hour. 

The  Embassy  is  filled  with  Harvard  secretaries, 
whose  lips,  as  Mr.  Egan  says,  are  still  wet  with  the 
milk  of  Groton.  The  ballroom  is  bulging  with 
stenographers.  Never  did  the  world  see  its  few  re- 
maining diplomats  so  overworked.  Instead  of  com- 
ing down  and  reading  the  papers  for  two  hours  a  day, 
they  now  all  work  mornings,  afternoons,  and  some- 
times evenings. 

June  2d, 

We  have  been  here  a  week.  We  have  given  up  the 
romantic  idea  of  starving,  and  are  managing  to  exist 
on  four-course  meals.  Billy  says  he's  not  going  to  be 
the  first  to  complain  of  the  high  price  of  caviar  and 
j)dte  de  foie  gras.  This  deprivation,  and  the  re- 
moval of  the  English  word  "lift"  from  the  elevator 
door,  are  the  most  striking  signs  of  the  war  we  have 
seen,  so  far.  One  does  have  to  have  bread  cards  and 
there's  scarcely  any  butter,  and  next  week  we  shall 


14  All  Uncensored  Diary 

get  egg  and  meat  cards,  but  as  these  are  handed  to 
one  by  the  early  morning  waiter,  it's  not  an  in- 
convenience. 

Helfferich  and  Batocki  have  taken  over  the  food 
supply  so  I  don't  suppose  any  more  swine  slaughter- 
ings a  la  Delbriick  will  go  on.  After  all,  a  blockaded 
nation  can't  afford  again  to  kill  350,000  pigs  at  once, 
because  they've  underrated  the  potato  supply  and 
think  the  pigs  will  eat  up  what's  left. 

I  had  eggs  and  a  glass  of  milk  to-day,  neither  of 
which  they  say  can  be  bought.  Really,  to  the  un- 
initiated, it  looks  as  if  Berlin  could  go  on  indefinitely 
with  England's  fleet  strung  around  her  neck — but  the 
eye  of  the  paying  guest  is  deceived.  The  bread, 
butter,  and  meat  lines  are  long.  Women  stand  hours 
to  get  their  weekly  allowance  of  a  walnut  size  of  but- 
ter for  each  one  in  their  family;  children  are  happy, 
but  thrive  not,  on  jam  and  artificial  honey.  Many 
women  wash  their  clothes  but  once  in  two  weeks 
because,  they  say,  it  saves  soap  to  do  more  at  one 
time.  You  feel  you're  asking  a  great  favour  if  you 
borrow  the  soap  in  a  friend's  house  to  wash  your 
hands. 

I  dropped  in  for  supper,  unexpectedly,  the  other 
night  at  a  friend's  flat;  they  said  they  had  all  they 


An  Uncensored  Diary  15 

could  get  to  eat  that  day  without  paying  half  their 
yearly  income  for  it.  The  fare  was  some  large  white 
balls  which  tasted  like  boiled  dough,  some  little 
stewed  prunes,  and  fried  potatoes  as  a  luxury.  They 
scared  me  when  they  said  the  dough  balls  were  a 
favourite  German  dish.  You  feel  like  saying:  "I'll 
come  to  dinner  if  you'll  first  tell  me  what  I'll  have  to 
eat.  If  my  food's  worse  than  yours,  you  win!" 
Housekeepers  are  only  allowed  half  a  pound  of  meat 
per  person  a  week,  and  cream  may  be  got  by  a 
doctor's  prescription  only.  Coffee  is  half  something 
else,  and  tea  is  dried  strawberry  leaves.  "Did  you 
ever  imagine,"  they  ask  one,  "that  they  would  make 
so  good  a  drink.?" 

When  I  came  over  here,  I  decided  that,  by  way  of 
keeping  myself  occupied,  I  would  look  about  to  see 
what  the  women  in  Germany  were  doing  during  the 
war.  I  started  with  the  refugees'  department  of  the 
Red  Cross.  Having  talked  with  a  number  of 
refugees  from  France,  the  result  is  that  my  illusions 
as  to  French  chivalry  have  had  a  sad  blow.  The 
stories  they  have  told  me  of  their  personal  expe- 
riences I  see  no  reason  to  doubt.  One  girl  was  gover- 
ness in  a  French  family.  The  war  broke  out  and 
orders  to  intern  all  Germans  were  issued.     At  ten 


16  An  Uncensored  Diary 

A.  M.  the  girl  was  put  in  a  cattle  car  labelled :  "  6 
chevaux  ou  36  personnes.^'  It  is  on  such  freight  cars 
as  this  that  detachments  of  the  French  army  are 
conveyed  toward  the  front.  There  were  in  the  car 
fifty-six  people,  counting  little  children.  Thirteen 
hours  later  they  arrived  at  their  station.  During 
this  time  they  had  been  given  neither  water  nor  food. 
On  leaving  the  car,  they  had  an  hour's  walk  to  the 
concentration  camp.  Many  were  by  this  time  in  a 
sad  state  of  hunger  and  fatigue.  For  beds  they  were 
given  straw  to  lie  upon.  It  rained  and  they  became 
wet.  The  sanitary  appliances  were  unspeakable. 
In  the  morning  they  were  given  a  small  pitcher  of 
water  for  washing.  My  friend  begged  for  a  larger 
bowl,  which  was  brought  her.  Shortly  after,  she  saw 
it  being  used  for  cooking  and  she  did  not  know 
whether  to  give  up  washing,  or  eating,  in  the  future. 
At  eleven  o'clock,  they  were  given  some  unappetizing 
soup,  which  was  the  first  food  they  had  had  in  twenty- 
five  hours. 

Mme.  Kahres,  another  acquaintance  of  mine,  is  a 
German  woman  who  lived  in  France  twenty  years. 
She  loved  the  country  dearly  and  speaks  French  like  a 
native.  When  war  broke  out,  she  said  she  would 
stay  and  continue  her  work  among  the  poor.     She 


An  Uncensored  Diary  17 

said  that  she,  and  the  other  German  women,  were 
addressed  in  the  streets  as  Grosse  espece  de  cochon 
prussienne,  and  other  less  complimentary  epithets. 
One  man,  who  was  ordered  to  take  her  passport 
picture,  shook  his  fist  in  her  face,  called  her  a  Prussian 
pig,  and  said  that  the  sooner  all  of  her  filthy  brood 
were  dead,  the  better.  She  is  the  gentlest  soul  im- 
aginable and  had  said  nothing  to  occasion  this  out- 
burst. The  poor  woman  left  the  sputtering  photog- 
rapher, her  knees  shaking  with  rage  and  a  pathetic 
helplessness.  Her  account  of  the  concentration  camp 
to  which  she  was  sent  was  no  more  pleasing,  nor  in- 
dicative of  gallantry  or  politeness,  than  many  others. 

"As  to  the  lack  of  food  in  the  camps,  the  over- 
crowding, and  absence  of  bedding,"  she  said,  "I  can 
only  excuse  the  French  by  saying  they  lost  their 
heads.  For  the  rest,  their  treatment  of  us  cannot  be 
excused."  She  was  greatly  surprised  that  in  Amer- 
ica we  had  escaped  hearing  these  stories  of  the  French 
concentration  camps.  The  women  and  children 
were  kept  in  them  for  three  months  and  then  sent 
back  to  Germany.  Neither  the  English  nor  the  Ger- 
mans and  Austro-Hungarians  interned  women  and 
children. 

We  lunched   at  the Legation   on   Tuesday. 


18  An  Uncensored  Diary 

Countess is  nice,  but  a  little  impressive.     I'd 

forgive  that  if  she  didn't  speak  English  with  an  accent 
and  call  a  dinner  jacket  a  "smoking"  (pronouncing  it 
smocking).  American  women  are  too  adaptable. 
So  many  of  them  who  live  abroad,  or  marry  foreigners, 
become  so  like  the  women  of  the  country  in  which 
they  live  that  one  scarcely  knows  they  are  American. 
An  exception  is  old  Mme.  de  Hagerman-Lindencrone, 
of  "The  Courts  of  Memory"  fame,  who  is  as  Ameri- 
can as  on  the  day  the  good  Lord  made  her,  in  spite  of 
a  lifetime  spent  in  the  company  of  emperors,  queens, 
and  princes  of  the  blood.  I  told  Baron  Roeder  that 
I  delighted  in  Mme.  de  Hagerman's  frank  remarks 
about  every  one.  He  said  she  was  certainly  delight- 
ful but  that  she  wasn't  his  notion  of  "frank,"  as  she'd 
never  in  her  life  been  known  to  say  anything  that  got 
her  into  trouble. 

The  papers  have  come,  announcing  a  great  Ger- 
man sea  victory.  They  say  the  English  have  lost  a 
tonnage  of  132,400  and  the  Germans  28,000  tons. 
Berlin  takes  it  calmly,  few  flags  are  out  and  there  is  no 
public  rejoicing.  Perhaps  a  few  more  people  smile. 
This  city  is  the  gloomiest  place  I  ever  expect  to  have  the 
misfortune  of  seeing.  Billy  says  the  atmosphere  is 
like  a  mercury  bath. 


An  Uncensored  Diary  19 

June  3d. 

To-day,  the  flags  are  all  out  for  the  naval  victory, 
even  the  trams  and  buses  are  decorated.  The  Ger- 
mans didn't  wish  to  celebrate  until  they  were  quite 
sure.  They've  made  one  or  two  mistakes,  so  they 
were  cautious  this  time.  The  school-children  take  a 
real  interest  in  German  victories.  They  get  a  holi- 
day on  the  strength  of  one,  and  they  measure  the  vic- 
tory only  by  the  length  of  their  holiday.  The  joy  is 
slightly  adulterated  by  having  to  go  to  school  first  and 
listen  to  a  careful  explanation  of  what  they  are  about 
to  celebrate.  Their  fondness  for  Hindenburg  is  quite 
immoderate.  In  the  eyes  of  German  children,  a 
campaign  against  the  Russians  is  a  most  praise- 
worthy undertaking. 

The  great  wooden  statue  of  Hindenburg,  encased  in 
geranium  plants  and  scaffolding,  had  many  nails 
driven  into  it  to-day.  The  statue  is  an  unsightly 
thing,  but  it  seems  to  appeal  to  the  Berliners  to  buy  a 
nail  for  the  benefit  of  the  Red  Cross,  climb  the 
scaffolding,  and  hammer  it  in. 

This  morning  I  went  to  the  Central  Labour  Ex- 
change. Fraulein  Dr.  Klausner  is  head  of  the 
women's  department,  and  as  there  is  now  scarcely 


20  An  Uncensored  Diary 

any  men's  department,  she  is  practically  running  the 
whole  thing.  Dr.  Klausner  was  villainously  dressed. 
She  wore  her  hair  short,  and  acted  with  an  energy  I 
have  rarely  seen,  but  spoke  with  an  intelligence  which 
made  me  feel  as  if  I'd  better  go  back  and  begin  with 
kindergarten  again.  In  the  Labour  Exchange  there 
is  a  big  room  divided  into  three  sections:  for  skilled, 
semi-skilled,  and  unskilled  workers.  Before  the  war 
they  averaged  200  applications  a  day  in  the  women's 
department,  and  these  women  were  given  jobs  in 
Berlin.  In  the  first  months  of  the  war,  from  3,000  to 
10,000  women  came  every  day,  demanding  jobs  any- 
where in  Germany.  In  August,  they  were  sent  out  on 
agricultural  work,  and  the  first  of  September  they  were 
called  to  the  munition  factories  and  to  making  army 
equipment  and  preparing  food  for  the  armies.  Two  or 
three  hundred  were  sent  out  of  Berlin  daily.  Many 
thousand  women  had  been  thrown  out  of  work  by  the 
closing  of  the  luxury  factories  in  the  first  days  of  the 
war.  It  is  impossible  to  tell  how  many  more  women 
are  working  now  than  before  the  war,  as  there 
are  no  statistics  yet,  and  many  women  are  not 
registered  who  are  now  attending  to  their  husbands' 
businesses.  The  Berlin  Labour  Exchange  fills  from 
three  to  five  hundred  places  a  day,   and   has  de- 


An  Uncensored  Diary  21 

mands  exceeding  that  by  from  one  thousand  to  four 
thousand. 

At  first,  Berlin  sent  to  the  provinces  only  those 
women  whose  children  could  be  taken  care  of  by  rel- 
atives. Later,  wages  became  high  enough  to  enable 
women  with  one  or  two  children  to  take  them  wuth 
them.  The  munition  factories  pay  the  highest 
wages.  The  average  wage  for  these  women  now  is 
about  eight  marks  a  day.  In  Germany,  as  in  the 
other  warring  countries,  there  is  little  the  women  are 
not  doing.  Sturdy  peasant  girls  pave  the  streets,  dig 
ditches,  lay  pipes.  Women  drive  the  mail  w^agons 
and  delivery  wagons,  deliver  the  post,  work  in  open 
mines,  work  electric  walking  cranes  in  iron  foundries, 
sell  tickets  and  take  tickets  in  railway  stations,  act  as 
conductors  in  the  subway — in  fact,  they  do  every- 
thing, from  running  their  husbands'  businesses  and  a 
large  family  to  running  a  tramcar. 

Every  sort  of  a  job  is  to  be  obtained  at  the  Labour 
Exchanges,  all  that  I  have  mentioned  as  well  as 
places  for  servants,  governesses,  shop-girls,  hotel  and 
restaurant  servants.  A  record  is  kept  of  each  person* 
Germans  have  a  genius  for  card  catalogues  and 
records;  they  know  where  their  applicants  go,  what 
they  do,  how  they  behave,  etc.     Since  the  war,  the 


22  An  Uncensored  Diary 

Berlin  Exchange  has  been  running  workshops,  which 
I  shall  see  another  day.  As  the  Exchanges  know 
where  in  Germany  labour  is  scarce  and  where  plenti- 
ful, they  keep  the  pressure  equalized. 

We  went  to  the  theatre  last  night  with  Lithgow 
Osborne.  Theatres  and  operas  have  been  running 
full  blast  since  the  war.  What  we  saw  was  an  ex- 
quisite pantomime.  Afterward  we  went  to  Richard's 
for  supper.  I  was  introduced  to  the  famous  German 
drink  of  the  cafe-goer,  champagne,  with  a  peach  in 
the  bottom  of  the  glass.  Peaches  cost  only  about  a 
million  dollars  an  ounce  here,  but  still  .  .  .  After 
a  while,  we  heard  an  angry  bellowing  from  a  German 
in  the  next  room  to  us.  Evidently  the  man  had  a 
grievance  of  a  trying  nature,  for  he  continued  to  roar 
w^hile  waiters  ran  in  and  out.  From  the  din  we 
gathered  that  he  had  kissed  a  lady  with  whom  he  had 
been  supping,  and  the  fair  one  was  then  promptly  put 
out  of  the  restaurant.  With  that,  the  man  stamped 
up  and  dowTi  and  declared  loudly  that  it  was  an 
accident  which  might  have  happened  to  any  gentle- 
man. And  they  say  these  are  emancipated  days  for 
the  German  woman! 

Lunched  with  the  Jacksons.  Mr.  Jackson  was  Sec- 
retary of  the  Embassy  here  for  years.     He  is  pro- 


An  Uncensored  Diary  23 

German  and  is  very  popular  in  the  country.  The 
Germans  trust  him,  Baron  von  Mumm  told  me. 
Baron  and  Baroness  Roeder  were  there  and  Countess 
Gotzen.  I  asked  Baron  Roeder  what  he  did  and  he 
said  he  was  Master  of  Ceremonies  at  Court,  and 
official  introducer,  and  a  lot  of  other  things.  He  is 
about  seventy-five,  but  he  says  he  is  going  to  the 
front  if  the  war  keeps  up  much  longer.  Already  he 
has  offered  himself  three  times.  His  chief  irritation 
against  England  is  being  cut  off  from  his  London 
tailor.  Every  German  I  meet  out  of  uniform  tells  the 
same  sad  tale.  The  old  gentleman  said  he  thought 
the  naval  victory  was  due  principally  to  Zeppelins. 
The  Bluchers  joined  us  for  coffee.  Count  Blucher 
looks  like  the  pictures  of  his  famous  grandparent. 

Princess said  that  his  father  is  a  dreadful  old 

gentleman,  fights  with  everyone,  his  son  included,  all 
the  time.  As  the  old  Prince  is  eighty-five,  the  rela- 
tions had  better  run  around  and  turn  the  other  cheek 
before  it's  too  late. 

June  Jfih, 

The  English  papers  arrived  in  Germany  to-day  and 
announce  that  the  German  victory  was  scarcely  a 
victory  at  all,  and  the  Post  even  had  the  audacity  to 


24  An  Uncensored  Diary 

call  it  an  English  victory.  Both  sides  declare  loudly 
that  they  were  greatly  outnumbered,  each  one  in- 
sisting that  the  whole  enemy  fleet  was  engaged.  Now, 
no  one  supposes,  even  in  Germany,  that  the  British 
blockade  is  broken,  nor  the  fleet  really  weakened,  but 
the  Germans  obviously,  unless  they  are  the  most  un- 
conscionable liars,  have  sunk  a  far  greater  tonnage 
than  the  English.  Also  I  have  heard,  from  diplomats 
here,  that  the  English  Government  is  furious  with 
Admiral  Beatty  for  engaging  such  a  superior  force 
without  waiting  for  reinforcements.  The  Germans 
want  to  know,  if  it  is  an  English  victory,  why  the  Ger- 
mans were  the  last  on  the  spot  and  picked  up  the 
English  sailors. 

We  motored  out  to  the  military  hospital  at  Buch 
with  Dr.  Rodiger  and  a  boor  of  a  magistrate.  There 
are  2,000  soldiers  there  now,  and  the  place  is  beauti- 
fully equipped  and  runs  as  smoothly  as  a  giant  engine. 
I  was  particularly  interested  in  the  baths,  where  men 
who  are  paralyzed  from  spinal  wounds  are  kept  sub- 
merged night  and  day  up  to  their  chins.  One  man 
whom  I  saw  walking  around  had  been  in  a  bath  nine 
months.  It  might  look  like  any  hospital  were  it  not 
for  the  exercising  rooms  with  their  intricate  machines, 
where  stiffened  and  wounded  muscles  are  patiently 


An  TJ licensor ed  Diary  25 

exercised  and  brought  back  to  life.  There  are  work- 
shops where  men  are  taught  new  trades,  if  their 
injuries  are  such  as  to  prevent  their  continuing  their 
old  ones. 

We  saw  the  place  from  garret  to  cellar.  If  they 
start  to  take  you  over  a  building  in  this  country, 
they  don't  do  it  casually.  Theatre,  kitchens,  wards, 
operating  rooms,  with  a  dissertation  on  each.  The 
band  was  playing  "Un  peu  d'amour."  Every  Ger- 
man band  plays  "Un  peu  d'amour" — it's  dreadful. 

After  lunching  with  the  doctors,  we  saw  the  Old 
People's  Home,  took  a  look  from  behind  the  fence  at 
the  insane  asylum — a  most  beautiful  set  of  buildings 
— and  looked  over  the  central  heating,  washing,  and 
baking  plants  for  the  whole  settlement — hospital, 
home,  and  asylum.  How  strong  was  the  contrast  be- 
tween this  old  people's  home  and  some  of  the  alms- 
houses I  have  seen  in  America.  Here  in  the  country 
outside  Berlin  were  1,100  aged  Germans  living  in 
handsome  modern  buildings,  surrounded  by  gardens 
and  lawns.  The  horror  of  going  to  the  almshouse  is 
gone,  in  this  country.  The  inmates  live  in  the 
homes  free  and  have  their  old-age  pensions  as  spend- 
ing money.  Berlin  takes  care  of  8,000  old  people  in 
this  way. 


26  An  Uncensored  Diary 

Billy  says  the  Germans  are  the  most  moral  people 
in  the  world  when  it  comes  to  dealing  with  Germans, 
and  the  most  immoral  in  their  dealings  with  the  rest 
of  the  world.  It's  quite  true.  A  German  would 
weep  with  pain  if  he  saw  our  almshouses  or  our  slum^ 
or  realized  that  we  didn't  have  federal  workmen's 
compensation — and  didn't  carry  out  the  law  when  we 
do  have  it  in  a  State — or  that  we  don't  always  pro- 
tect machinery  for  the  workers.  They  hold  the 
point  of  view,  which  religious  sects  are  growing  out  of: 
Anything  that  added  to  the  glory  of  God  used  to  be 
right — what  adds  to  the  glory  of  Germany  is  right. 

However — back  to  our  inspection  of  intensified 
civilization.  I  no  longer  retained  the  use  of  my  legs, 
but  the  men  still  had  strength  for  a  large  municipal 
garden.  I  sat  under  a  tree  and  ate  cherries.  The 
garden  was  worked  by  Russian  prisoners.  They  seem 
to  make  clever  and  willing  farmers.  Someone  told 
me  orders  were  out  to  capture  several  thousand  more 
Russians,  as  they  want  them  for  planting  and  the 
harvest.  Frenchmen  won't  work.  They  get  too 
homesick.  Apparently  the  Russians  make  successful 
garbage  men,  as  one  sees  no  others  in  Berlin.  They 
go  without  a  guard. 

We  staggered  in  to  Countess 's  to  tea  late  in 


An  Uncensored  Diary  27 

the  afternoon.  She  told  me  how  she  brought  up 
Hilda,  her  daughter.  Hilda  is  a  little  matter  of 
six  feet  high.  Everyone  is  afraid  of  her,  and  her 
mama  won't  let  her  go  up  in  the  hotel  lift  alone  for 
fear  something  will  happen  to  her.  As  her  last 
offence  was  to  refuse  to  let  the  Kaiser  kiss  her — he 
being  her  godfather  and  claiming  parental  privileges 
— it  would  seem  she  could  take  care  of  herself. 

June  6th, 

The  Roeders  for  tea.  Old  Baron  R.  talked  politics 
to  us. 

"The  Kaiser  didn't  want  the  war,"  he  said.  *^He 
doesn't  belong  to  the  Junker  party  and  he  doesn't 
want  annexation,  nor  does  he  believe  in  the  Tirpitz 
policy.  He  belongs  to  the  Liberals  and  is  strongly 
supported  by  the  Socialists  owing  to  his  demo- 
cratic tendencies.  The  Ministry  and  the  Chancellor 
cannot  be  overthrown  unless  the  Kaiser  wishes  it. 
Many  Germans  tell  us  that  the  Chancellor  will 
resign  if  the  Emperor  is  persuaded  to  adopt  un- 
restricted U-boat  warfare  again — that  is  the  "sink 
without  warning"  policy.  Baron  Roeder  says  that 
Bethmann-Holhveg  will  not  resign  because,  no 
matter  what  any  one  says  or  thinks,  as  a  matter  of 


28  An  Uncensored  Diary 

fact  the  Chancellor  is  responsible  to  the  Emperor 
alone  and  not  to  the  people,  and  until  the  Emperor 
tires  of  him  he  will  stay  in  office. 

"If  he  should  die,"  continued  Baron  Roeder, 
"and  the  conservative  Crown  Prince  were  to  come  into 
power  and  appoint  a  Junker  chancellor  and  ministry, 
it  would  mean  the  ruin  of  Germany  and  the  pursuit 
of  a  reckless  policy  of  annexation,  which  would  only 
bring  the  country  into  another  war.  The  Kaiser,  and 
the  greater  part  of  intelligent  Germany,  do  not  wish 
to  keep  Belgium  and  northern  France.  They  want 
only  two  or  three  miles  in  the  Vosges  hills  so  that,  if 
war  comes  again,  our  armies  will  not  have  to  fight  their 
way  uphill.  They  will  not  give  back  Alsace-Lorraine. 
For  Poland  and  Finland,  they  wish  autonomy  under  a 
German  or  an  Austrian  prince,  while  the  Kurland 
they  would  annex  to  Germany.  Of  course  Germany 
wants  her  colonies  back.  What  she  wants  in  Mesopo- 
tamia is  hard  to  say  as  yet  but,  if  the  AlHes  take  a 
share,  Germany  wishes  her  portion." 

We  said  the  Germans  had  told  us:  "Poland  to  the 
vanquished.  Poland  would  be  such  a  trouble  to 
any  one  that  she  should  be  given  away  as  a  punish- 
ment to  the  country  acquiring  her." 

"True  enough,"  said  Roeder.     "She  would  always 


An  Uncensored  Diary  29 

side  with  the  country  who  didn't  own  her.  The 
most  fooHsh  thing  I  have  ever  known  is  this  war!" 
The  old  gentleman  waved  his  hands.  "Everyone 
is  being  ruined." 

"Why  doesn't  the  Government  make  known  its 
plan  of  evacuating  Belgium  then.^"  we  asked. 

"I  have  urged  it,"  he  answered,  "but  the  military 
party  won't  allow  it.  They  say  we  must  hold  it  as 
hostage  for  our  colonies,  and  also  they  say  the  Allies 
would  use  all  the  troops  they  are  putting  against  us 
there,  in  Belgium,  for  something  else  more  danger- 
ous to  us  if  they  knew  we  were  going  to  get  out  any- 
way." 

To  crush  Germany,  to  beat  her  to  her  knees,  or  to 
starve  her  out,  seems  to  me  impossible.  She  gives 
one  the  impression  of  amazing  strength.  Although 
I  feel  that  efficiency  is  the  one  crime  worse  than  the 
seven  deadly  sins  put  together,  and  the  only  thing  no 
one  should  ever  be  forgiven  for,  I  realize  that  it  is  a 
terrible  weapon.  It  isn't  "in"  any  other  country  to 
fight  a  war  the  way  the  Germans  are  doing  it.  Food 
is  going  to  be  low  and  everyone  is  going  to  feel  it, 
but  they  are  not  going  to  get  to  the  starvation  point, 
they  are  too  careful  to  allow  it.  Imagine  people  in 
New  York  paying  any  attention  if  they  were  ordered 


30  An  Uncensored  Diary 

not  to  serve  milk  before  eleven  o'clock  on  three  days 
in  the  week,  or  if  they  were  told  not  to  cook  with  fat, 
even  if  they  had  it,  on  two  days  in  the  week!  They 
would  get  up  particularly  early  in  order  to  be  able 
to  do  both. 

It's  foolish  to  talk  of  ruining  Germany.  She  is 
too  valuable  to  be  ruined.  And  Germany  doesn't 
want  to  rule  the  world.  She's  nothing  compared  to 
England  when  it  comes  to  that.  Bernhardi  fright- 
ened everyone  outside  Germany.  The  Germans 
haven't  read  his  book.  It  is  unfortunate  for  Ger- 
many that  she  started  her  colonial  policy  when  it 
had  been  out  of  fashion  for  a  year  or  two — everyone 
else  having  got  what  they  wanted  most — but  it's 
rather  natural,  and  not  a  new  idea  for  her  to  want 
colonies. 

I  wish  I  knew  how  this  war  started — just  now,  I 
believe  that  Germany  was  in  the  grip  of  a  false 
nightmare.  She  believed  the  world  was  against  her 
and  about  to  pounce  upon  her  neck.  Therefore 
she  armed  and  prepared  herself  to  such  an  extent  as 
no  one  had  ever  seen.  Possessed  of  this  conviction, 
she  jumped  first  into  this  war,  whipped  into  still 
more  violent  action  by  the  Russians  mobilizing  on 
her  frontier.     If  one  knew  whether  Germany  knew 


An  Uncensored  Diai-y  31 

beforehand  of  the  Austrian  note  to  Serbia  one 
would  know  better  just  how  dehberately  Germany 
went  into  this.  If  there  had  been  one  powerful, 
far-seeing  man  in  any  of  the  countries,  the  war 
would  not  have  happened.  But  there  is  no  use  go- 
ing over  the  diplomatic  correspondence  here. 

June  7th. 

We  went  to  a  secessionist  exhibition  to-day. 
There  were  few  pictures.  The  one  blessing  of  this 
war  is  that  it  has  reduced  the  number  of  futurist 
paintings.  In  another  larger  and  saner  exhibition, 
we  were  surprised  to  find  such  a  small  number  of  war 
pictures.  They  have  painted  everything  but  war, 
and  there  is  little  horror  here,  and  no  sentimentality. 
There  was  one  picture  of  the  fall  of  Maubeuge  which 
Billy  insisted  he  was  going  to  buy.  It  was  at  least 
twelve  by  fifteen  feet  and  I  had  the  most  dreadful 
time  persuading  him  that  proud  Frenchmen  in  red 
trousers  and  relentless,  strong-looking  Germans 
wouldn't  do  in  full  size  in  a  private  house. 

Tea  with  an  artist  from  Munich,  and  some  others. 
Major  Here warth-Bittenf eld,  former  Military  At- 
tache in  Washington,  was  talking  to  me  about  the 
Panama  Canal. 


32  An  Uncensored  Diary 

"  It's  of  no  use  to  you  strategically.  You  don't  own 
the  land  up  to  it.  Imagine  our  holding  the  Kiel 
Canal  without  Schleswig-Holstein !  It's  as  if  you  were 
writing  a  book  and  began  at  the  end.  Watch  out 
someone  does  not  write  the  beginning  for  you!" 

Apparently  the  Germans  would  be  quite  willing 
for  us  to  take  Mexico.     It  sounds  to  them  so  logical. 

We  heard  to-day  the  A.  B.  C.  countries  sent  a  note 
to  Germany,  saying  they  would  seize  German  ships 
in  their  ports  if  America  and  Germany  went  to  war. 
I  believe  Brazil  would  do  it.  The  Germans  spend 
a  lot  of  money  every  year  on  German  schools  in 
Brazil,  but  they  don't  seem  to  gain  much  of  a  footing 
there. 

June  8th. 

Lord  Kitchener  and  his  staff  have  gone  down  on 
the  cruiser  Hampshire.  They  do  not  report  how  it 
was  sunk.  General  Ellershaw  was  drowned  with 
him.  The  English  papers  have  not  come  yet,  so  we 
don't  know  how  they  are  taking  this  blow  across 
the  Channel.  The  papers  are  always  five  or  six  days 
late  and  it  is  hard  to  get  them.  They  are  to  be 
found  only  in  the  large  hotels  and  a  few  other  places. 

I  met  Countess  Bllicher  talking  to  that  mad  Irish- 


An  Uncensored  Diary  33 

American,  John  Gaffney.  He  was  removed  from 
his  consulship  at  Munich  for  being  un-neutral,  so 
now  he  is  in  a  white  rage  at  the  President.  He  says 
he  is  the  only  American  who  has  been  fair  to  the 
Germans  and  that  he  never  was  un-neutral.  Both 
Countess  Blucher  and  Gaffney  were  in  a  great  state  of 
mind  over  Casement.  Gaffney  says  he  is  a  hero  who 
sacrificed  himself  for  his  country,  and  Countess 
Blucher  that  he  is  a  lifelong  friend  and  therefore  must 
be  got  off  from  hanging,  whatever  he  has  done.  She 
has  written  a  letter  to  England,  saying  Casement  is 
mad,  in  hope  that  it  may  help  to  save  him. 

"I  don't  fancy  he  will  like  that — coming  from  me," 
she  said,  "but  it  was  the  only  thing  I  could  think  of 
doing." 

I  asked  Count  Blucher  when  he  thought  the  war 
would  end,  and  he  said:  "When  Russia  is  spent." 
I  said  that  sounded  rather  pessimistic. 

"No,"  he  said.  "I  think  we  can  wear  her  out  and 
then  get  a  port  on  the  Baltic." 

Personally,  I  can't  quite  see  any  one  exhausting 
Russia  yet  awhile. 

I  asked  him  why  they  didn't  stop  pounding  Ver- 
dun and  go  after  Riga,  but  he  didn't  know  the  an- 
swer.    All  Germany  professes  the  greatest  admira- 


34  An  Uncensored  Diary 

tion  for  France  and  says  what  a  tragedy  it  is  that  she 
is  now  dead  and  gone  and  useless.  They  might 
take  Verdun  before  they  count  France  out. 

Dined  last  night  with  Countess  Gotzen.  I  sat 
between  a  Spaniard  and  Prince  Christian  of  Hesse. 
Xhe  Spaniard  was  a  detestable  little  thing,  and  Prince 
Christian  had  tonsilitis  and  thought  he  was  going  to 
die,  so  I  didn't  get  much  entertainment  out  of  him, 
either.  Later  on  we  changed  seats  and  I  drew  a  fat 
and  pleasant  Bavarian,  who  had  known  my  aunt 
in  America.  I  asked  him  what  his  name  was  and 
he  said  they  called  him  "Booby."  I  said  I  might 
get  to  that  in  time  but  I  had  to  have  something  else 
to  tide  *me  over.  After  a  few  Christian  names,  I 
ran  him  down  to  his  visiting  card  and  Baron  von 
Papius. 

Billy  is  reading  finance  reports.  The  Reichsbank 
has  not  nearly  run  over  the  gold  reserve  yet.  But  it 
issues  notes  on  baby  carriages,  false  teeth,  and  hair. 
The  bank  must  be  doing  the  ash-man  out  of  business. 

Went  to  the  refugee  department  of  the  Red  Cross. 
Prau  Kahres  took  me  about.  The  refugees  here 
now  are  principally  from  Russia  and  France,  some 
from  England.  The  great  number  of  East  Prussians 
that  fled  before  the  Russian  invasion  have  gone  back 


An  Uncensored  Diary  35 

to  their  homes.  The  tales  they  told  of  Russian 
cruelty  were  not  to  be  equalled  by  the  Inquisition. 
Sisters  meet  the  fugitives  at  the  stations  and  tell 
them  where  they  can  get  lodgings.  There  has  been 
the  greatest  diflSculty  in  finding  places  for  the 
thousands  of  homeless,  penniless  fugitives  to  live  in. 
At  the  Criminal  Courts  Building  have  been  housed 
and  fed  several  thousands  at  the  price  of  one  mark  a 
day.  The  courtrooms  are  turned  into  dormitories, 
and  small  rooms  given  to  families.  Prison  cots  are 
used  and  the  place  is  bare  but  it  is  at  least  a  shelter. 
The  more  well-to-do  are  directed  to  other  places. 
One  woman  took  expensive  rooms  at  a  large  hotel. 
She  dined  to  the  tune  of  forty  marks  a  meal  and 
bought  rich  furs.  On  former  visits  she  had  always 
paid  her  bills,  so  the  stores  and  hotel  gave  her  credit. 
The  bill  this  time  she  brought  to  the  Red  Cross. 
Frau  Kahres  questioned  her  in  heated  tones.  She 
said  she  had  been  the  mistress  of  an  English  duke  for 
twenty  years  and  could  not  live  as  the  Red  Cross 
directed!  She  would  die  in  a  quiet  and  nice  home! 
She  must  have  light  and  life !  Mein  Gott !  What 
did  they  expect  of  her.^  Wasn't  the  life  of  a  refugee 
hard  enough  as  it  was? 

All   refugees   report   to   this   department.     They 


36  An  Uncensored  Diary 

give  their  histories,  and  work  is  found  for  them.  If 
they  are  ill,  the  doctor  examines  them.  Old  people 
and  sick  people  are  often  sent  to  the  mountains,  where 
the  department  keeps  two  small  hotels  and  lodging 
rooms.  The  women  knit  and  sew  here  and  the  men 
work  at  boot-making  and  the  like. 

In  the  refugee  building  in  Berlin  is  a  much  over- 
worked dentist.  There  has  been  a  terrible  run  on 
false  teeth;  everyone  wants  them  for  nothing  when 
they  have  the  chance.  The  dentist  now  has  instruc- 
tions to  supply  only  the  ones  needed. 

"I  tell  the  people,"  said  Frau  Kahres,  "that  I 
want  new  ones  myself,  but  I  do  not  get  them  now  in 
war  time."  Maybe  the  refugees  have  heard  of  the 
bank  notes  issued  on  this  article. 

The  Chancellor  has  left  off  fighting  the  Conserva- 
tives about  annexation,  and  Batocki  talks  about 
food.  He  urges  the  people  not  to  expect  too  much. 
I  don't  imagine  they  do,  as  I  saw  meat  lines  on  every 
block  in  the  north  of  Berlin  this  morning,  and  a  po- 
liceman for  each  meat  shop.  The  women  looked 
patient  enough. 

Had  tea  with  Countess  Sehr-Thoss,  an  American. 
She  is  charming.  When  I  admired  an  old  painting  on 
her  drawing-room  wall,  she  said:  "Yes.      I  bought 


An  Uncensored  Diary  37 

that  with  2,000  marks  sent  me  by  my  old  uncle  to 
buy  eggs.  He  wrote  he  heard  in  America  we  were 
paying  five  dollars  apiece  for  eggs  and  thought  I 
might  not  be  able  to  afford  them!" 

The  Duchess  of  Croy  came  bounding  in,  looking 
most  exuberant  and  American.  I  liked  her,  she  is  so 
unaffected. 

Count  Rodern,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  says 
England  is  spending  $20,000,000  a  day;  France, 
$12,000,000;  and  Germany  $14,000,000  on  the  war. 

The  Germans  admit,  in  what  Billy  calls  "a  piece 
of  reptile  press,"  the  loss  of  two  more  ships,  dread- 
noughts.    This  brings  their  losses  up  to  60,000  tons. 

June  9th, 

Went  this  morning  to  a  Jugendheim  in  Charlotten- 
burg.  Charlottenburg  is  even  more  model  and  pro- 
gressive and  socially  reformed  than  the  rest  of  Ber- 
lin, so  I  spent  an  hour,  under  the  tutelage  of  Frau 
Keller,  in  being  impressed  with  it.  This  Jugendheim 
is  a  combination  nursery,  kindergarten,  school, 
and  training  school  for  household  servants,  baby- 
nurses,  and  kindergarten  teachers.  Working  moth- 
ers bring  their  children  here  at  eight  in  the  morning 
and  fetch  them  away  at  six  in  the  evening.     The 


38  An  Uncensored  Diary 

babies  are  bathed  and  dressed  in  clean  clotlies,  and 
are  napped  and  fed  and  doctored.     Learning  is  made 
so  pleasant  that  the  children  attack  anything  from 
walking   to    geography   with    equal    zest.      In    one 
room,  a  number  of  pink-clad  infants  were  having  a 
riotously   good    time   rolling   about   the   floor.     As 
soon  as  the  children  are  old  enough,  they  are  taught 
to  use  their  hands  at  some  game.     They  sit  on  little 
painted  chairs  at  a  low  table  and  play  with  coloured 
paper  and  crayons.     At  the  proper  hour  they  are 
fed  with  milk  or  soup,  at  another  hour  they  go  into 
a  garden  to  play,  then  they  come  back  and  take  a 
nap  on  a  rope  mat  swung  in  the  air.     The  children  are 
divided  into  small  groups,  each  with  a  teacher  and  a 
separate  room,  the  object  being  to  give  them  individ- 
ual attention  and  not  bring  them  all  up  alike.     Still 
older  children,  besides  having  regular  lessons,  work 
at  making  baskets,   building   and  furnishing  little 
houses,  using  the  w^ood  of  cigar  boxes.     Anything 
to  make  them  use  their  hands  well.     I  should  have 
liked  to  play  a  long  time  with  the  children,  but  my 
guide  understood  I  came  there  to  inspect,  so  she  saw 
that  I  did  it. 

A  record  of  each  child  is  kept  and  visits  paid  in  the 
homes  by  the  teachers.     They  find  out  whether  the 


An  Uncensored  Diary  39 

children  shall  be  allowed  to  come  to  school  and 
whether  the  family  is  able  to  pay.  The  girls  who  are 
learning  to  teach  children,  after  the  manner  of  this 
school,  all  pay — they  being  of  a  more  well-to-do  class. 
Many  of  them  Hve  in  the  building  as  in  a  sort  of 
boarding  school  and  the  prices  are  low.  One  pays 
for  the  year's  board  and  lodging  from  1,000  to  1,800 
marks.  Downstairs  is  a  central  cooking  station, 
where  lunch  is  prepared  and  sent  out  to  2,000  children 
in  Charlottenburg.  Luncheon  is  always  in  the  form 
of  soup,  different  each  day,  and  particularly  different 
in  that  it's  made  from  a  doctor's  prescription  instead 
of  a  cook-book.  There  is  no  doubt  about  these 
children  getting  the  proper  number  of  calories  per 
spoonful!  This  school  is  run  by  private  funds,  with 
a  small  municipal  subsidy,  and  is  the  largest  of  eigh- 
teen in  Charlottenburg. 

Many  children  are  sent  to  the  country  in  the 
summer  by  the  municipality.  Those  wishing  to  go 
must  first  be  examined  by  a  doctor  and  only  the  ones 
are  chosen  who  seem  run  down  and  to  need  a  change. 
This  year  they  expected  the  percentage  to  be  much 
higher  than  usual,  but  Frau  Rathenau,  of  the  Nation- 
aler  Frauendienst,  told  me  they  were  greatly  astonished 
to  find  it  practically  the  same.     This  does  not  look 


40  An  Uncensored  Diary 

as  if  the  children  of  Berlin  were  starving.  Many 
more  children  are  sent  out,  however,  for  the  authori- 
ties wish  them  to  have  the  food  which  is  more  easily 
obtained  in  the  country.  Even  the  peasants  in 
Germany  seem  to  wish  to  do  their  part  to  help  in  the 
war.  They  have  offered  to  take  children  into  their 
homes,  girls  in  particular,  as  they  say  boys  are  a 
nuisance.  Letters  are  sent  home  by  the  youngsters 
full  of  excitement  over  eggs  and  butter  and  milk. 
Between  the  State  and  the  City,  a  soldier's  wife 
gets  $14  a  month  for  each  child.  When  peasants 
take  a  child  to  live  with  them,  the  peasant  and  not 
the  mother  gets  the  money.  It  is  an  astonishing 
race.     I  cannot  help  but  admire. 

Ju7ie  10th. 

Went  last  night  to  Wansee  to  dine  with  the 
Hahns,  catching  the  train  in  our  customary  manner 
as  it  moved  out  of  the  station.  Hahn  is  about 
twenty-six  years  old,  large  and  preoccupied,  with 
the  weight  and  fate  of  nations  upon  his  heavy 
shoulders.  His  mouth  is  large  and  his  brown  eyes 
ringed  with  black.  The  back  of  his  head  is  flat  and 
Prussian,  and  his  intensity  shows  in  his  voice  and 
excitable  hands.     Hahn's  mother  is  Polish,  hand- 


An  Uncensored  Diary  41 

some,  emotional,  and  friendly.  She  walked  arm  in 
arm  with  me  around  her  garden  and  told  me  of  her 
two  sons  in  the  war.  Neither  of  them  is  an  officer,  as 
the  family  is  Jewish  and  they  won't  give  Jews  com- 
missions. The  youngest  boy  went  out  at  seventeen, 
when  the  war  began,  and  tears  came  into  Frau  Hahn's 
eyes  when  she  said  she  had  no  word  from  him  for  a 
week. 

Just  then  the  maid  brought  two  letters.  "Oh, 
you  have  brought  me  luck!"  she  cried.  "From 
both  my  boys!"  and  she  kissed  the  envelopes. 

The  eldest  son,  our  friend,  is  working  on  his  own 
hook  at  anything  he  can  do  to  help  secure  peace. 
They  say  he  has  influence.  Hahn  believes  peace 
could  have  been  made  a  year  ago  and  thinks  it  only 
madness  not  to  speak  out  frankly  now.  Bethmann- 
Hollweg,  he  says,  is  a  brilhant  man  but,  believing 
himself  only  a  representative  of  the  people,  follows, 
instead  of  leading,  public  opinion.  Hahn  is  liberal 
indeed.  He  wishes  to  see  his  countrymen  out  of 
Belgium  and  northern  France  with  all  possible 
speed.  He  wishes  Germany  had  never  taken  Alsace- 
Lorraine,  but  now  that  they  have,  says  for  psycholog- 
ical reasons,  they  cannot  be  given  up.  (Of  course 
coal  mines  may  be  psychological,  but  it's  a  new  name 


42  An  Uncensored  Diary 

for  them.)  He  would  give  back  the  northern  part  of 
Schleswig-Holstein,  where  some  100,000  Danes  are 
living.  He  would  have  the  Finns  and  Poles,  and  per- 
haps the  White  Russians,  autonomous,  each  nation- 
ality under  its  own  prince.  He  wishes  an  alliance 
between  America,  Germany,  England,  and  France 
in  order  that  Russia  may  be  kept  from  squeezing  the 
life  out  of  all  of  them  at  some  future  date. 

"If  Russia  could  be  broken  up  into  smaller  states, 
the  world  would  be  safe,"  said  he. 

A  doctor  and  several  musicians  are  the  only 
Germans  I  have  seen  who  wish  to  carry  ruthlessness 
to  the  bitter  end,  and  the  Hahns  are  the  other  extreme. 
They  would  divide  up  the  world,  most  of  Germany 
included,  and  hand  autonomy  around  on  a  platter. 
Hahn  took  a  sick  Englishman  out  of  prison  camp 
and  kept  him  for  six  months  in  his  house. 

The  real  flaw  in  the  minds  of  all  Germans  to  whom 
we  have  talked  is  the  fact  that  none  of  them  believe 
that  any  nation  can  be  depended  on  to  keep  its  word, 
and  not  to  break  a  treaty.  They  simply  do  not 
expect  it — for  which  of  course  they  have  more  than 
one  reason. 

We  went  sailing  after  dinner.  I  really  admire  the 
Germans  now  for  the  clever  way  in  which  they  reef 


An  Uncensored  Diary  43 

a  sail,  simply  by  working  a  little  crank  at  the  jaws  of 
the  boom  and  winding  the  canvas  around  the  boom. 
The  jib  reefs  the  same  way.  It  only  takes  a  second 
and  one  does  not  have  to  take  in  the  sail.  I  must  rig 
my  boat  this  way;  it  would  add  at  least  ten  years  to 
my  life,  as  I  get  caught  in  a  hurricane  about  three 
times  a  week  all  summer  and  break  my  fingers  to 
bits  tying  nettles. 

Saw  Fraulein  Marelle  and  Fraulein  Schulhoff,  of 
the  Lyceum  Club,  this  morning.  They  were  telling 
us  stories  of  the  invasion  of  East  Prussia.  Fraulein 
Marelle's  first  cousin  owns  large  estates  there  and 
has  kept  her  supplied  with  news.  By  a  miracle,  his 
castle  and  land  were  left  untouched.  He  says  he 
cannot  understand  it.  He  stayed  there  himself  and 
was  ready  to  defend  his  place  against  the  whole 
Russian  army.  They  destroyed  everything  up  to  his 
territory,  and  then  stopped. 

One  lady,  whom  Fraulein  Marelle  knows,  a  Frau 
von  Bieberstein,  had  her  chateau  cut  to  ribbons.  Her 
tapestry  chairs  were  sliced  up  with  knives,  her  china 
and  mirrors  broken,  her  beautiful  chapel  knocked  to 
pieces,  her  beds  ripped  up  and  the  feathers  scattered 
from  garret  to  cellar.  It  was  rather  queer  to  hear 
this  tale  from  a  German  woman  after  Mme.  Huard's 


44  An  Uncensored  Diary 

tale  of  the  wreck  of  her  chateau  in  northern  France 
by  the  Germans. 

They  told  me,  too,  of  a  nurse,  a  friend  of  theirs, 
who  had  gone  to  Russia.  There  she  found,  among 
other  things,  a  carload  of  children,  eighty  in  number, 
all  dead  of  starvation.  The  Russians  had  put  them 
in  the  car,  sidetracked  it,  and  forgotten  it.  Some 
other  cars  were  found  containing  200  people,  all  dead 
but  one  child  in  its  mother's  arms.  The  nurse  saw 
the  Czarina  and  told  her  of  these,  and  many  other 
things,  and  she  said  the  Empress  burst  into  tears. 
Well  she  might! 

The  Germans  are  told  that  if  the  Russians  get  into 
East  Prussia  again,  they  are  to  send  the  women  away 
immediately — those  who  stay  are  all  outraged. 

This  same  cousin  writes  Fraulein  Marelle  that  the 
German  army  is  planting  grain  right  up  to  the  firing 
line. 

The  Germans  have  a  novel  and  highly  effective 
way  of  restoring  their  destroyed  property  in  East 
Prussia.  The  Russians  did  not  leave  one  stone  upon 
another,  where  they  found  several  together,  and  I 
imagine  that,  when  they  found  a  single  stone,  this 
they  rolled  away.  Every  destroyed  village  or  town 
in  East  Prussia  is  adopted  by  some  German  city,  or 


An  Uncensored  Diary  45 

community.  The  foster  parent  calls  itself  god- 
mother of  the  destroyed  district  it  picks  out,  and 
undertakes  to  rebuild  and  re-stock  its  godchild. 
The  guardianship  is  to  last  indefinitely  until  all  is 
quite  right  again.  Berlin  took  the  district  of  Ortels- 
burg  and  its  thirty-two  villages  under  her  wing. 
Unlike  the  old  woman  who  lived  in  a  shoe,  she  knows 
just  what  to  do  for  the  1,100  children  in  the  district. 
She  sends  architects  to  build  up  the  houses,  bed- 
clothing — two  sets  for  each  bed — wearing  apparel, 
and  so  on.  The  clothes  are  sent  through  the  Lyceum 
Club.  The  good  ladies  belonging  to  the  Club  had 
proved  themselves  so  capable  in  provisioning  one 
village  that  Berlin  handed  them  12,500  marks,  and 
said :  **  Take  charge  of  this  for  the  city."  So  energetic 
were  they,  that  they  even  sent  toys  and  books  to  the 
children  for  Christmas. 

The  members  of  this  Lyceum  Club  are  all  writers, 
painters,  or  musicians.  Their  object  before  the  w^ar 
was  to  help  on  the  struggling  genius,  and  encourage 
the  arts.  There  are  Lyceum  Clubs  in  London,  Paris, 
and  Berlin.  Since  the  war,  their  object  has  been  to 
help  foreigners  in  their  cities,  be  they  friends  or 
enemies.  Paris,  they  tell  me,  is  falling  somewhat 
short  in  loving  her  enemies,  but  London  is  doing 


46  An  Uncensored  Diary 

nobly.  Friiulein  Schulhoff  told  me  her  dear  friend, 
Mrs.  Asqiiith,  was  even  being  censured  in  the  Press 
as  a  traitress,  for  giving  so  much  assistance  to  the 
wives  and  daughters  of  her  enemies.  The  Berlin 
Lyceum  Club  now  works  in  cooperation  with  the 
Nationaler  Frauendienst. 

June  11th. 

We  got  six  London  Times  from  Kirk.  The  differ- 
ence with  which  the  announcements  of  the  sea  fight 
are  made  in  English  and  in  German  newspapers  is 
curious.  The  English  have  headlines:  "Six  British 
cruisers  sunk" — "Heavy  losses."  "Eight  destroy- 
ers sunk."  The  Germans  have  no  headlines,  par- 
ticularly they  do  not  thrust  their  sunken  ships  upon 
the  eye  as  do  the  English.  The  loss  of  the  Liitzow, 
the  largest  ship  in  their  fleet,  was  not  announced  until 
four  days  after  the  rest,  and  that  in  small  type  at  the 
end  of  a  long  column  summarizing  the  British  losses. 

The  Russian  offensive  seems  to  be  of  some  worth. 
They  claim  480  captured  officers  and  25,000  men. 
At  least  they  must  have  some  fraction  of  that 
number. 

Dinner  at  the  Esplanade  to-night  was  really  too 
awful.     We  had  neither  meat  nor  bread  cards,  so 


All  Uncensored  Diary  47 

were  reduced  to  a  dish  called:  "lost  eggs,"  and  as- 
paragus. The  eggs  were  lost  in  some  dreadful  vege- 
table and  the  asparagus  was  that  fat  white  and  taste- 
less stuff  they  grow  here.  Billy  remarked  that  the 
sauce  hoUandaise  must  have  been  difficult  to  make 
without  either  butter,  eggs,  or  olive  oil,  and  his  tea, 
he  said,  reminded  him  of  when  his  nurse  used  to  stick 
her  finger  in  a  cup  of  hot  water  and  tell  him  to 
"drink  his  tea.  Dearie."  I  had  apricots  for  dessert 
and  ate  a  great  number;  that  they  had  begun  to 
ferment  was  no  longer  a  drawback — at  least  they 
tasted  of  something. 

They  are  going  to  oblige  one  to  have  cards  for 
clothes  now.  Billy  says  he  wants  to  know  how  the 
city  authorities  are  going  to  know  when  he  needs  a 
new  undershirt. 

June  12th. 

No  German  teacher  as  yet,  which  makes  things 
difficult,  for  I  have  to  go  all  over  the  city  by  myself. 
I  can  ask  the  way  to  a  certain  street,  and  can  say 
danke  fieldmouse  for  their  answer,  but  can  never, 
under  any  circumstances,  understand  what  they  say, 
and  have  to  go  on  asking  until  someone  points. 

Went  to  tea   with  Mrs.   Oppenheim.     She,   like 


48  An  Uncensored  Diary 

many  other  American  women  with  German  hus- 
bands, is  more  violently  pro-German  and  anti- 
English  than  the  Germans  themselves.  Americans 
seem  unhappy  unless  they  can  go  to  extremes.  I 
admired  a  cat  she  had — the  most  peculiar  animal  it 
was. 

"Yes,"  she  said.     "He  is  Siamese." 

"But  where  did  you  get  him;  here.^"  I  asked. 

"No,"  she  answered  most  reluctantly,  "I  am 
afraid  Lord  Kitchener  gave  him  to  me." 

"Well,  after  all,"  said  I,  "he  might  have  come 
from  a  more  unworthy  source!" 

"  I  do  not  know,"  she  said. 

I  asked  her  why  she  didn't  keep  it  in  a  barbed- wire 
cage  and  feed  it  prisoner's  rations. 

Later  I  remarked  that  I  found  an  old  wooden  set- 
tee she  had,  charming. 

"I  regret  to  say,"  said  she,  "that  it  is  English." 

I  told  her  that,  if  it  worried  her,  I  would  buy  all 
her  English  furniture  at  half  price.  "If  you  are 
really  loyal,"  I  added,  "you  will  give  it  to  me!" 
She  did  not  mind  my  laughing  at  her  about  the  cat 
and  the  furniture,  but  she  really  was  quite  serious 
about  them. 

Her  sixteen-year-old  daughter  bobbed  to  me  and 


An  Uncensored  Diary  49 

kissed  my  hand.  I  must  say  it  is  a  shock  when  they 
do  it. 

Agatha  Grabish  called  this  morning.  She  has  been 
to  East  Prussia.  One  old  woman  she  talked  to  said 
she  had  stayed  for  the  first  Russian  invasion. 

"Why.?"  Agatha  asked  her. 

"Well,"  she  said,  "my  bread  was  baking  when  the 
others  started  to  go,  and  I  didn't  want  to  leave  it. 
But  I  might  just  as  well  have,"  she  added,  "because 
the  Russians  came  in  and  ate  it  all  up  as  soon  as  I 
took  it  out  of  the  oven." 

We  went  to  the  Zoo  to  see  the  holiday  crowd. 
Every  soldier  who  had  a  sweetheart,  and  every 
mother  and  father  with  a  child  was  there.  I  am 
sure  they  must  be  skimping  dreadfully  on  the  meat 
for  the  lions  and  tigers — the  poor  beasts  were  so 
thin,  all  their  bones  were  sticking  out,  while  those 
disgusting  hippopotami,  that  feed  on  hay,  looked  as 
if  they  would  explode  if  they  ate  another  mouthful. 

June  nth. 

Went  to  see  Frau  Levi  Rathenau  this  morning, 
to  learn  about  the  Nationaler  Frauendienst. 

The  German  w^oman  in  wartime  is  not  primi- 
tive.    Neither  is  she  simply  an  excellent  and  useful 


50  An  Uncensored  Diary 

creature  carrying  six  bundles  and  a  baby  as  she  walks 
beside  a  tightly  uniformed  and  empty-handed  hus- 
band, nor  one  who  naturally  offers  the  onl}^  arm- 
chair and  sofa  cushion  to  her  lord  and  master  or 
silently  seeks  the  upper  berth  in  a  sleeping  car.  To 
persons  who  have  this  view  of  German  woman- 
hood it  is  a  shock  to  see  women  at  the  heads  of 
numberless  German  enterprises,  some  of  nation-wide 
scope. 

In  Berlin  the  modern  woman  handles  anything 
from  a  large  office  force  to  a  tramcar,  and,  un- 
disputed, uses  the  talent  for  organization  which  is  so 
deeply  rooted  in  German  nature. 

Every  woman  in  Germany  is  fighting  this  war. 
Not  only  does  she  send  her  husband  out  to  be  killed, 
but  she  steps  into  his  place  when  he  has  gone. 
^Yith  his  work  to  do,  she  has  still  her  own — to  take 
care  of  his  house  and  bring  up  his  children. 

Individually,  this  would  be  impossible,  but  collec- 
tively it  is  possible.  There  are  innumerable  organi- 
zations, war  kitchens,  central  cooking  stations,  sup- 
ply stations,  day  nurseries,  kindergartens,  work- 
shops, Red  Cross  stations,  refugee  committees, 
leagues  of  housewives,  institutions  for  disabled 
soldiers.     The  great  thing  is  that  each  branch  the 


An   Uncen sored  Diary  51 

women  take  up  is  systematically  run  and  that  they 
work  in  cooperation. 

The  largest  of  these  women's  organizations  to-day 
is  the  Nationaler  Frauendienst,  or  National  Women's 
Service  League. 

There  is  little  reminiscent  of  the  American  Society 
Woman's  Relief  Committee  about  either  Dr.  Ger- 
trude Baumer  or  Frau  Levi  Rathenau.  Doctor 
Baumer  is  the  leader  of  the  woman's  movement  of 
Germany,  and  the  names  of  these  two  women  are  as 
familiar  in  Germany  as  are  the  names  of  Miss  Jane 
Addams  and  Dr.  Anna  Howard  Shaw  in  America. 

Neither  of  these  ladies  is  at  the  head  of  the  Service 
League  because  she  is  a  rich  man's  wife  or  because 
it  is  rather  the  vogue  this  year  to  be  interested  in 
social  work. 

Their  office  is  like  the  railroad  magnate's  office 
in  a  modern  drama.  At  an  appointed  hour  one  is 
ushered  in,  through  several  rooms  of  clerks  and 
stenographers.  Doctor  Baumer  is  at  a  large  table, 
dictating.  The  inevitable  telephone  is  at  her  elbow. 
Handshakes.  A  chair  is  ofiPered,  sat  upon,  and  one's 
business  is  asked.  The  cigars,  which  come  on  the 
stage  at  this  moment,  are  omitted.  The  inevitable 
telephone  rings  frequently  during  the  interview  and  is 


52  An  Uncensored  Diary 

answered  with  a  minimum  number  of  words.  Wo- 
men secretaries  bring  papers  to  be  signed  after  rapid 
and  comprehensive  glances  at  contents.  Low-toned 
questions  are  replied  to  after  a  second's  eflScient 
thought. 

"The  Nationaler  Frauendienst,"  explained  Frau 
Rathenau,  "was  organized  on  July  31,  1914,  by  Doc- 
tor Baumer  and  me.  Our  object  was  to  help  neces- 
sitous wives  and  children  of  our  soldiers  all  over 
Germany  by  giving  them  advice. 

"We  sent  prominent  women  in  every  city  of  the 
empire  a  programme  which  explained  the  work  we 
wished  them  to  do  and  told  them  how  to  organize. 
In  Berlin  w^e  called  in  delegates  from  the  big  women's 
clubs — literary,  conservative,  socialistic,  Jewish, 
Catholic,  and  liberal,  and  founded  our  central  com- 
mittee of  30  women.  Propaganda  of  any  kind  was 
forbidden." 

One  thinks  of  a  more  famous  coalition  and  wonders  if 
30  members  are  more  conducive  to  harmony  than  23. 
We  presented  our  programme  to  the  city  authorities 
in  Berlin,"  Frau  Rathenau  continued.  "They  ap- 
proved of  our  plans  and  consented  to  pay  all  our 
office  expenses.  Later,  when  food  became  scarce, 
they  commenced  giving  us  $20,000  a  month  for  food. 


An  Uncensored  Diary  53 

The  rest  of  our  money  comes  from  private  contribu- 
tions. 

"Our  work  is  in  three  directions:  First,  to  help  the 
soldiers'  wives;  second,  to  help  their  widows  and  chil- 
dren; third,  to  aid  in  the  question  of  their  food  supply. 

"There  are  in  Berlin  23  bureaus  from  which  the 
*  Kriegsunterstuetzung,'  or  war  relief,  is  given  out. 
This  is  the  allowance  to  which  common  soldiers' 
wives  are  entitled  from  the  city  and  the  State;  it 
amounts  to  30  marks  a  month  for  a  woman  and  14 
marks  for  each  child. 

"The  Nationaler  Frauendienst  has  a  branch 
near  each  of  these  bureaus  taking  in  the  same  dis- 
trict, and  the  two  chief  women  of  each  branch  sit 
on  the  Kriegsunterstuetzung  Committee  of  that 
district.  They  know  the  history  of  every  family 
which  gets  the  war  pension  and  advise  the  committee 
when  this  money  is  insufficient.  In  such  cases  Ber- 
lin gives  an  added  18  marks  to  women  without 
children  and  lesser  sums  to  women  who  receive  the 
14  marks  from  the  State  and  city  for  each  child. 
Thus  a  woman  with  three  children  may  get  83  marks 
a  month  and  none  of  it  from  charity." 

In  the  first  few  weeks  of  the  war  hundreds  of 
women  and  girls  lost  their  jobs  through  the  closing 


54  An  Uncensored  Diary 

of  factories  that  make  luxuries.  Seeing  advice  ad- 
vertised free  by  the  Service  League,  they  rushed  to 
the  offices  in  hordes. 

They  were  advised  what  kind  of  work  to  do  and 
sent  to  the  Labour  Exchange  to  get  it.  Workshops 
were  opened  where  they  were  taught  many  of  the 
new  trades  so  fast  opening  to  women.  Some  are 
kept  on  in  the  shops  and  paid  the  regular  wage,  while 
many  go  out  to  the  factories.  Women  who  have 
taken  over  their  husbands'  businesses  receive  expert 
advice. 

Wives  come  and  ask  advice  for  all  manner  of 
household  matters — how  to  cook  in  the  new  cooking 
boxes;  how  to  cook  at  all  without  butter,  flour,  or  fat; 
what  to  do  wdth  their  children  when  they  are  good, 
bad,  indifferent,  or  sick;  what  to  do  with  the  children 
when  they  are  at  work;  how  to  pay  their  rent  and 
food  bills  now  that  they  no  longer  have  their  hus- 
bands' wages. 

The  women  who  stream  in  all  day  are  taken  to 
tables  and  get  individual  attention.  Exhaustive 
and  fatally  correct  histories  of  each  family  are  kept. 
They  are  visited  in  their  homes  and  instructed  there 
by  ladies  of  the  Service  League.  They  cannot  ask 
help  outside  their  own  district.     No  chance  is  there 


An  Uncensorcd  Diary  55 

for  an  ambitious  family  to  gain  a  living  by  a  gentle 
game  of  graft.  The  Nationaler  Frauendienst  is  hus- 
band, brother,  and  watchful-eyed  keeper  to  its  clients. 

If  they  need  food  and  cannot  pay  for  it,  cards 
are  given  out  for  the  particular  thing  they  want. 
The  stores  take  these  and  are  reimbursed  by  the 
Service  League.  More  than  $250,000  worth  of  food 
cards  had  been  given  out  up  to  January  1,  1916. 

The  Nationaler  Frauendienst  realized  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  war  that  there  would  be  trouble  wuth 
the  food  supply.  They  asked  the  Government  if 
they  might  run  a  campaign  to  teach  the  women  how 
to  manage  with  shortened  rations.  The  Govern- 
ment refused  on  the  ground  that  it  would  frighten 
the  people. 

Soon,  whether  it  frightened  them  or  not,  they  had 
to  know  the  truth  and  learn  to  economize. 

The  Government  permitted  the  Service  League 
to  ask  all  the  cooks  in  Berlin  to  a  meeting  in  the 
Reichstag  (The  Parliament  Building).  By  this 
strategic  move  each  cook  instantly  felt  herself  to  be 
as  important  as  Von  Bethmann-Hollweg  or  any  one 
else  in  the  empire.  They  were  convinced  after  an 
hour's  talk  that,  of  course,  the  army  was  important, 
but  that  they  were  really  the  ones  to  win  the  war 


56  All  Uncensored  Diary 

and  that  to  wish  for  anything  more  than  potato 
flour  and  glucose  with  which  to  cook  was  the  height 
of  absurdity.  The  only  wonder  was,  if  tea  could 
be  made  so  successfully  from  strawberry  leaves, 
why  they  had  never  known  it  before ! 

The  housewives  were  next  treated  to  an  attack 
of  eloquence.  They  came  to  meetings  all  over  the 
city  and  learned  new  methods  of  housekeeping. 
They  learned,  for  instance,  that  to  bake  cake  with 
either  flour  or  eggs  was  the  eighth  of  the  deadly  sins. 

The  numbers  of  women,  and  men,  too,  who  seek 
advice  in  the  offices  of  the  Nationaler  Frauendienst 
give  some  idea  of  the  size  of  the  league.  In  Berlin 
alone,  in  January,  65,000  persons  came;  in  May, 
49,000;  the  greater  number  coming  naturally  in 
the  hard  winter  months.  In  the  district  of  Nordring, 
which  is  composed  entirely  of  working  people,  800 
persons  come  to  the  office  a  week. 

The  Nationaler  Frauendienst  is  organized  all  over 
Germany  in  virtually  the  same  manner  as  in  Berlin. 
A  description  of  its  work  in  Berlin  suffices  as  a  de- 
scription of  its  work  in  every  city.  It  does  little 
work  in  the  country  except  to  send  children  from  the 
city  to  holiday  camps. 

The    number    seeking    advice   from    the    Service 


An  Uncensored  Diary  57 

League  might  deal  a  blow  to  the  idea  that  there  is  a 

new  independent  German  woman  were  it  not  for 

the  fact  that  it  is  from  women  they  get  the  advice. 

There  is  none  of  the  I-don't-know-I'll-go-home-and- 

ask-Alec  spirit  about  those  in  charge.     A  visit  to 

them  moves  at  about  the  same  speed  as  a  visit  to 

Charles  Schwab  in  the  central  oflSce  of  the  Bethlehem 

Steel  Company. 

June  17th. 

"General  Moltke  drops  dead,"  on  the  front  page  of 
the  newspaper,  and  "Czernowitz  falls,"  under  him. 
Even  though  this  is  the  third  time  for  Czernowitz, 
there  is  still  some  interest  shown  in  the  evacuation. 
It  strikes  me  that,  for  a  country  w^hich  everyone  said 
was  dead  and  gone,  and  which  they  had  begun  to 
divide  up  and  partition  around,  the  Russians  are 
doing  pretty  well. 

I  still  venture  to  go  about  and  meet  "The  Wo- 
men" (capital  letters)  of  Germany.  They  attain  a 
terrifyingly  high  pitch  of  intelligence  but  they  are 
most  unbeautiful.  Their  definition  of  clothes  is,  I 
presume,  "A  modest  covering  for  the  body,  suffi- 
cient to  protect  it  from  the  cold."  Some  of  them 
dress  in  a  sort  of  new  art  way  but  few  of  them  seem  to 
imagine  that  dressing  well  would  detract  nothing 


58  An  Uncensored  Diary 

from  their  intellectuality  of  appearance — on  which 
they  concentrate  so  heavily — and  that  it  might  add 
several  cubits  unto  their  charm. 

There  was  a  mass  meeting  of  Germany's  most 
distinguished  women  at  the  Esplanade  the  other 
night — Dr.  Gertrude  Baumer,  Dr.  Lisa  Salomon, 
and  the  rest.  Doctor  Baumer  looks  like  a  wonderful 
woman.  There  is  a  powerful  compelling  quietness 
about  her  which  is  magnetic.  She  was  at  the  same 
table  at  which  I  was,  and  although  she  said  nothing, 
I  felt  she  was  quite  capable  of  taking  Bethmann- 
Hollweg's  place  any  time  he  w^anted  a  rest. 

Some  of  the  people  would  talk  munitions  in  the 
most  tactless  manner.  What  fault  is  it  of  mine,  I'd 
like  to  know,  if  du  Pont  and  ]\Ir.  Schwab  send  shells 
and  gunpowder.  Baron  Boeder  said  that,  w^hen  he 
hears  his  countrymen  spitting  about  munitions,  he 
says:  "Well,  my  dear  fellow,  you  know  the  United 
States  tried  to  get  us  to  agree  in  The  Hague  Con- 
vention, that  we  would  not  supply  munitions  to 
belligerents,  and  we  refused,  so  here  we  are  now 
hoist  by  our  own  petard,  so  to  speak,  and  there  is  no 
use  your  making  a  noise  about  it!" 

Of  course  the  Germans  never  supplied  munitions  to 
any  one,  oh,  no.     They  didn't  make  any  money  out 


An  Uncensored  Diary  59 

of  the  Spanish-American  war,  nor  the  Boer  war,  nor 
the  Russo-Japanese  war,  and  they  didn't  sell  muni- 
tions to  the  Turks  when  they  pretended  to  be  friends 
with  the  Greeks,  and  they  never  thought  of  supplying 
Mexico  with  shells  or  guns,  did  they?  .  .  .  No 
indeed,  never  I 

Billy  has  been  seeing  bankers  lately,  to  try  and 
find  out  about  the  finances  of  the  country.  He 
talked  to  Havenstein,  President  of  the  Reichsbank, 
two  hours  yesterday,  and  with  Von  Gwinner,  Direc- 
tor of  the  Deutsche  Bank,  one  hour.  I  asked  him 
how  they  treated  him. 

"Von  Gwinner  saw  through  me,"  he  said,  laughing. 
"He  asked  me  to  tea,  but  Havenstein  called  out  all 
the  geheimraths  in  his  employ  and  set  them  to  making 
statistics  for  me!" 

Havenstein  said  peace  would  never  be  permanent 
until  England  was  ready  to  recognize  commercial 
competition  on  the  basis  of  who  worked  the  best, 
and  he  declared  that  whatever  else  the  war  was  it  was 
a  blessing  for  German  banking.  This  it  is — appar- 
ently; but  not  really,  of  course.  Money  never  cir- 
culated so  freely;  men  are  not  hoarding  it  as  they  are 
said  to  be  doing  in  France;  and  with  every  industry 
running  full  tilt  a  great  deal  of  money  is  being  made. 


60  An  Uncensored  Diary 

A  copy  of  the  Dresdnerbank's  yearly  report  got 
into  France,  and  the  French  declared  that  never  had 
such  a  colossal  lie  been  invented  by  the  Germans  as 
this.  It  was  utterly  impossible,  said  they,  that  Ger- 
man finances  could  be  in  such  a  visibly  flourishing 
condition. 

Billy  met  Mr.  Gerard  in  the  street,  just  after  he 
had  seen  Havenstein  and  Von  Gwinner.  B —  said 
they  had  talked  very  frankly,  and  Mr.  Gerard  asked 
him  if  they  had  shown  him  the  printing-press  where 

they  made  the  money. 

June  20ih. 

Billy  and  I  went  to  see  Zimmermann  in  the  Foreign 
Office.  He,  with  Von  Bethmann-Hollweg,  Von  Jagow, 
Helfferich,  and  Falkenhayn,  are  running  Germany. 
Zimmermann  is  a  large,  blond  man.  His  forehead  is  ex- 
ceptionally high  and  his  cheeks  much  scarred  by  sword 
slashes.  He  is  genial,  calm,  and  although  the  busiest 
man  in  the  Empire,  quite  unhurried. 

"I  have  just  been  seeing  some  bankers,"  said  he. 
"We  are  negotiating  another  loan  for  our  Turk- 
ish friends.  Those  people  are  always  in  need  of 
money." 

Billy  said  it  was  a  great  imposition  for  us  to  take  up 
his  time,  as  he  was  probably  very  busy.     He  laughed 


An  Uncensored  Diary  61 

and  declared  he  was  glad  to  see  us.  I  told  him  he 
was  like  Disraeli,  who  said  he  was  not  "unusually 
busy  to-day"  but  "usually  busy." 

Billy  asked  if  the  U-boat  war  was  likely  to  be 
resumed. 

"That  depends  on  Wilson,"  answered  Zimmer- 
mann.  "If  he  pushes  England  into  obeying  interna- 
tional law,  we  will  not  resume  it.  If  he  goes  on 
doing  nothing,  as  he  has  for  some  time,  I  cannot 
answer  for  what  our  mihtary  and  naval  authori- 
ties will  do." 

I  said  that  Wilson  was  not  likely  to  move  a  foot 
before  the  elections,  and  would  Germany  be  willing 
to  wait  until  November? 

Zimmermann  shrugged  his  heavy  shoulders.  "  That 
is  a  long  time,"  said  he.      "We  have  enough  subma- 


rines now." 


Altogether,  he  sounded  rather  ominous  on  this 
subject,  but  very  likely  he  wishes  American  news- 
paper men  to  circulate  the  idea  that  Germany  will 
do  something  drastic  if  America  does  not  insist  upon 
England's  introducing  a  few  of  the  elements  of 
legality  into  her  blockade,  or  at  least  insist  that  the 
neutral  mails  shall  arrive  at  their  destination. 

I  asked  him  if  he  didn't  think  the  war  was  going  on 


62  An  Uncensored  Diary 

and  on  because  no  one  would  speak  frankly  of  peace, 
and  he  said,  "yes,"  but  that  Germany  had  said  all 
she  could. 

"All  that  is  done  if  we  mention  peace,"  said  he, 
"is  for  everyone  to  shout:  *The  Germans  are  beaten; 
they  can't  go  on  any  longer.' " 

Billy  asked  him  whether  peace  could  not  be  made 
now  if  the  biggest  men  from  each  country  were 
brought  together. 

"Ah!"  said  Zimmermann,  "If  it  were  possible  to 
have  a  small,  absolutely  secret  meeting,  then  we 
probably  could  make  peace  now,  but  how  is  that  to  be 
managed?  We  cannot  speak  out  frankly  to  the 
whole  world,  and  how  can  one  negotiate  except 
publicly.'^" 

We  asked  him  whether  Germany  looked  for  a  long 
peace  after  the  war,  and  whether  it  would  be  on  the 
grounds  of  great  military  strength  and  strong  bound- 
aries, or  on  the  basis  of  an  international  conciliatory 
body,  or  a  treaty? 

He  answered  that  nothing  short  of  a  United  States 
of  Europe  would  amount  to  anything,  and  seemed 
to  possess  the  usual  German  skepticism  of  treaties. 

"We  will  have  to  have  a  United  States  of  Europe 
some  day,  to  enable  us  to  compete  economically  with 


A?!  Uncensored  Diary  63 

America.     That  may  come  in  eighty  or  one  hundred   ^ 
years,  but  not  in  our  lifetime.     If  you  would  really 
develop  your  natural  resources,  we  in  EuTope  would 
be  helpless." 

I  asked  him  why  the  men  in  the  Government  gave 
to  American  newspaper  men  interviews  that  either 
said  nothing,  or  said  things  which  were  misunder- 
stood. 

Zimmermann  answered  that  there  was  a  great  howl 
if  they  didn't  give  interviews,  and  that  of  course  they 
did  not  know  how  to  manage  public  opinion  in  Amer- 
ica, so  they  depended  upon  the  newspaper  men  to  put 
things  so  that  Americans  would  understand  pro- 
perly. 

It  struck  me  that  it  was  a  rather  risky  business  for 
Von  Bethmann-Hollweg,  or  Zimmermann,  to  trust 
their  similes  and  figures  of  speech  in  the  hands  of  Von 
Wiegand.  Look  what  he  did  in  publishing  the 
Chancellor's  remark  about  "the  map  of  Europe  as 
it  stands  to-day."  If  he  didn't  understand  what  that 
meant,  he  should  have  said  so  and  "permitted  him- 
self to  remark"  something  more  sensible  and  less 
subservient  to  the  Chancellor  than  he  did. 

Went  to  a  war  kitchen — the  one  run  by  Americans. 
It  would  be  rather  irritating  to  our  anti-German  na- 


64  An  Uncensored  Diary 

tion  to  know  that  the  American  kitchen  was  the  best 
in  Berhn  and  that  all  food  there  was  free ! 

June  22d, 

I  went  to  several  kitchens  yesterday — Mittlestands- 
kiichen,  they  are  called.  A  man  named  Abraham 
started  them  in  the  beginning  of  the  war.  They 
are  all  over  the  city,  for  children  and  for  adults. 
Abraham  poses  as  a  philanthropist,  but  they  say  his 
charity  is  of  the  paying  kind,  and  he  is  hated  accord- 
ingly. I  do  not  see,  however,  how  he  can  make 
much  money;  people  come  to  his  kitchens  in  thou- 
sands and  they  pay  only  sixty  pfennigs  (fifteen  cents) 
for  soup,  a  rich-looking  stew,  and  a  great  plate  of 
barley  and  cherries,  or  some  other  sweet.  The 
restaurants  almost  pay  for  themselves,  for  the  food  is 
sold  them  at  cost  by  the  city,  and  most  of  the  ser- 
vice is  voluntary  work  by  ladies  who  wish  to  help. 
Whatever  the  cost  is,  it  is  borne  by  private  individ- 
uals, spurred  on  by  Father  Abraham.  One  sees,  not 
only  middle-class  people  eating  in  the  kitchens,  but 
some  quite  poor  people  as  well,  and  also  some  who 
look  of  the  upper  middle  class.  I  went  with  an  old 
American  lady  missionary;  she  is  a  spry  old  thing 
of  seventy  years,  who  w^orks  her  head  off  for  the 


An  Uncensored  Diary  65 

Germans  and  finds  it  vastly  humorous  that  they 
call  her  the  "high  well-born-collector-of-old-clothes- 
for-the-poor." 

Went  to  Frau  Plotow's  to  tea.  She  is  another 
lively  septogenarian.  I  liked  her  a  great  deal,  but 
her  cake  did  not  have  any  sugar  in  it — that's  a  pleas- 
ant little  surprise  one  has  nowadays.  Several  people 
came  to  tea  with  me  the  other  day  and  it  was  quite 
awkward  when  I  discovered  that  the  cakes  I  had 
bought  tasted  like  wrapping  paper.  Mais:  Quest 
ce  qu'on  veut? — c'est  la  guerre. 

Frau  Plotow  took  me  to  her  Jcinderhort,  or  rather 
her  mddchenhort,  as  it  is  only  for  girls.  This  one, 
like  most  of  the  kinderhort,  is  in  a  school  building. 
Working  mothers  leave  their  children  for  the  day, 
paying  a  small  sum,  or  nothing,  to  have  their  little 
girls  fed,  exercised,  taught,  and  disciplined.  This 
mddchenhort  is  one  of  a  series  of  twenty-five  run 
by  private  individuals.  The  city  gives  them  the 
schoolrooms;  the  teachers  pay  for  their  light  and  heat; 
the  food  and  other  expenses  are  private.  In  peace 
time,  children  come  to  the  mddchenhort  after  school 
hours  and  stay  until  six  or  six-thirty.  Owing  to  the 
fact  that  many  school  buildings  are  now  turned  into 
barracks,  the  other  schools  must  run  two  sets  of 


66  An  Uncensored  Diary 

children,  one  in  the  morning  and  one  in  the  after- 
noon, so  the  kindergartens  also  have  two  sessions. 
There  are  many  societies  which  support  kinderhorts. 
The  number  of  children  left  da^ly  in  all  the  kinder- 
horts  is  more  than  double  what  it  was  in  peace  time. 

An  institution  that  appeals  to  me,  particularly,  in 
the  German  schools  is  the  row  of  shower-baths  in  the 
cellar,  where  every  child  gets  a  thorough  scrubbing 
once  a  week,  head  and  all,  with  tooth-brushes  hang- 
ing in  neat  rows  on  the  wall,  to  be  used  daily  under 
the  eagle  eye  of  the  superintendent.  When  children 
get  to  America,  I  suppose  they  feel  it  is  an  infringe- 
ment of  their  inalienable  right  to  be  dirty,  if  any 
one  suggests  soap  to  them. 

The  school  yard  is  treeless  and  grassless,  so  the 
girls  of  the  mddchenhort  society  are  marched  out  to 
gardens  to  play.  They  dance  and  sing  and  play 
delightful  games,  but  they  are  all  so  good  I  don't 
see  how  they  can  really  enjoy  themselves.  The 
bows  and  curtsies  one  gets  are  in  strong  contrast 
to  the  insults  hurled  at  one  by  American  public- 
school  children.  A  German  child  does  not  seem 
to  know  what  being  really  "fresh,"  and  glorying  in 
the  act,  means — which  is  one  of  the  few  blessings  of 
German  discipline. 


An  Uncensored  Diary  67 

The  mddchenhort  society  also  occupies  itself,  as 
does  every  third  person  in  Berlin  apparently,  with 
sending  children  to  holiday  camps  in  the  summer- 
time. 

June  22d, 

It  is  rather  hard  for  me  to  find  out  how  the  war  is 
taught  in  the  schools,  as  I  don't  speak  German,  but 
as  far  as  I  can  tell,  it  varies  in  different  schools. 
They  are  not  allowed  to  speak  of  peace,  but  the 
teachers  read  the  newspapers  to  the  pupils.  Of 
course  what  they  read  depends  on  the  newspapers 
they  take.  In  only  one  school  I  know  of  do  the  chil- 
dren go  through  a  short  hate  ceremony.  When  the 
teacher  says:  ^'Gott  strafe  England,^^  the  pupils  an- 
swer: ''Gott  strafe  ^5."  They  are  still  taught  English 
and  French  but  they  are  not  allowed  to  use  a  word 
of  either  language  outside  of  their  lesson. 

Baron  von  Mumm  has  asked  us  to  dinner,  through 
his  secretary,  through  a  stenographer  with  the  me- 
dium of  a  typewriter.  I  call  that  using  the  third 
person  with  a  vengeance.  Since  everyone  is  so 
formal  here,  we  thought  we  might  as  well  do  as  the 
Romans  do,  and  be  slightly  annoyed  instead  of 
amused,  so  we  didn't  answer.  His  secretary  called 
up  to  know  if  we  were  coming,  and  Billy  asked  him 


68  An  Uncensored  Diary 

what  Frieherr  von  Mumm  meant  by  asking  us  in  that 
manner.  The  secretary  said:  "Excellenz  never  sent 
out  his  own  invitations  in  war  time."  We  forgave 
him  as  grandly  as  possible  and  consented  to  go — 
as  if  we'd  miss  the  chance  of  getting  an  extra 
dinner  with  meat;  I'd  go  even  if  I  were  ordered 
to. 

June  26ih, 

The  Mexican  situation  is  growing  very  serious. 
I  do  not  relish  the  thought  of  having  my  brothers  go 
out  to  fight  those  treacherous  half-breeds,  but  I  am 
now  afraid  I  shall  see  them  do  it. 

We  dined  with  the  Wlnslows  last  night.  A  German 
officer  there,  Lieutenant  Merton  by  name,  declared 
it  would  take  500,000  men  to  quiet  the  Mexicans, 
and  a  million  and  a  half  men  to  conquer  the  country. 
Unlike  most  Germans,  he  thinks  we  would  be  most 
unwise  to  keep  it.  He  said  that  we  would  have 
to  keep  an  enormous  police  force  there,  since  we  were 
so  cordially  hated  that  revolutions  would  be  inces- 
sant. I  said  it  would  be  almost  as  much  trouble  as 
India  to  the  British,  and  he  said:  "Certainly,  as 
the  Mexicans  are  a  filthy  lot." 

Lieutenant    Merton    had    just    come   from   Bel- 


An  Uncensored  Diary  69 

gium,  where  he  was  one  of  Von  Bissing's  aides-de- 
camp.  He  said  the  General  quite  considered  him- 
self King  of  Belgium  for  the  time  being — which 
he  virtually  is — and  lived  and  acted  as  such. 
Merton  says  Von  Bissing  sympathizes  so  greatly 
with  the  conquered  country  that  he  is  doing  every- 
thing possible  to  help  it  along  and,  he  laughingly 
added,  that  he  believed  the  General  was  so  jealous 
for  its  welfare  that  he  would  even  defend  it  against 
Germany.  The  Lieutenant  told  us  that  many  Ger- 
mans were  greatly  shocked  by  the  levity  of  the  Bel- 
gians. They  think  that  printing  such  post-cards  as: 
''Qui  est  le  vainqueur?  U amour, ^^  most  unseemly 
on  the  part  of  a  conquered  people. 

Merton  speaking  about  coming  back  to  civilization 
from  six  months  in  the  trenches :  he  said  an  automo- 
bile made  him  so  nervous  he  couldn't  stand  it,  and  that 
a  tramcar  crossing  the  street  at  the  same  time  he  did 
was  too  terrifying  a  thing  to  be  borne,  while  as  for 
eating  at  a  table  with  the  proper  implements  and  in 
civilized  company,  that  was  much  worse  than  six 
months'  shell  fire.  He  dined  with  Von  Bissing  his 
first  night  back  from  the  front,  and  he  declared  he 
was  so  shy  and  clumsy  that  the  old  gentleman  kept 
patting  his  knee  and  telling  him:  "Never  mind,  my 


70  Aji  Uncensored  Diary 

boy,  they  are  all  like  this  when  they  come  from  the 
firing-line,  paralyzed  with  fright  at  the  sight  of  glass 
and  china." 

We  went  to  our  Consul-General's,  Mr.  Lay's,  after 
dinner,  to  dance.  Most  of  the  Embassy  were  there, 
and  several  Germans,  but  they  would  play  cards  in- 
stead of  dancing.  Of  course  it  was  rather  hot,  as 
we  had  to  keep  the  blinds  shut  for  fear  of  the  police 
catching  us  dancing  in  war  time. 

June  27th. 

Yesterday  was  a  strenuous  day — too  strenuous  in 
fact.  I  got  to  the  Central  Labour  Exchange  at  nine 
o'clock  in  order  to  go  through  the  workshops.  They 
have  taught  10,000  women  to  make  soldiers'  supplies 
here.  There  are  about  200  women  who  sew  in  the 
building  and  some  4,000  who  get  work  from  the  Ex- 
change and  take  it  home.  The  wages  are  paid  ac- 
cording to  piecework  but  none  are  allowed  to  make 
more  than  fifteen  marks  a  week.  This  is  because  the 
demand  for  work  from  the  Exchange  workshops  is  so 
great  and  because  they  wish  to  make  this  work  only 
a  temporary  thing,  to  teach  the  women  and  to  tide 
them  over  until  another  job  can  be  found  for  them. 
These  workshops  have  filled  7,000,000  marks'  worth 


An  Uncensored  Diary  71 

of  contracts  since  the  war;  they  were  almost  entirely 
orders  from  the  miHtary,  for  helmet  caps,  cartridge 
cases,  and  sand  bags.  The  Exchange  has  one  or  two 
men  in  its  employ,  and  it  was  rather  interesting  to 
me  to  see  that,  while  the  women  could  cut  out  only 
ten  patterns  at  a  time,  the  men,  using  a  sharp  knife, 
could  cut  out  forty.  The  shops  pay  all  their  expenses 
and  even  make  money.  They  are  anxious  to  make 
this  a  centre  for  giving  out  home  work  after  the  war, 
and  the  money  earned  will  be  devoted  to  doing  this. 
Every  employee  is  of  course  insured.  Accident 
insurance  is  paid  half  by  employer  and  half  by 
employee;  accidents,  two  thirds  by  the  worker  and 
one  third  by  the  employer :  the  State  pays  the  doctor, 
medicine,  and  hospital  bills  when  the  insurance  is 
needed. 

In  1915,  the  Central  Labour  Exchange  of  Berlin 
found  work  for  95,953  women,  while  all  the  Ex- 
changes secured  jobs  for  738,138  women.  The 
women's  divisions  are  always  run  by  women  in  every 
Exchange  in  Germany. 

Saw  the  Oscar-Helene  Heim,  a  hospital  for  crippled 
children,  in  the  afternoon.  It  was  a  horrid  effort 
to  get  there.  First,  a  long,  hot  trip  in  the  subway — 
abomination   of   desolation — and   then   a  scorching 


72  An  Uncensored  Diary 

walk  through  a  shadeless  sandy  wheat-field  to  the 
great  home  among  the  pine  trees.  Naturally,  the 
Germans,  being  Germans,  would  build  a  thing  like 
this  in  the  country,  instead  of  planting  it  in  the  city, 
in  our  usual  happy  manner.  They  are  too  sensible 
by  half,  these  people. 

The  children  lie  in  beds  out  under  the  trees,  or 
in  the  sun.  When  they  can  walk,  they  play  in 
sand-pits  or  use  the  swings  in  the  garden.  A  dozen 
or  so  two-  and  three-year-olds  were  rolling  in  the 
sand  pit  in  abbreviated  one-piece  bathing  suits, 
and  browning  their  little  twisted  limbs  in  the  healing 
sunshine.  When  they  grow  older,  they  have  school, 
half  an  hour  at  a  time,  and  then  play.  The  Director 
said  his  children,  crippled  and  sick  though  they  were, 
learnt  faster  than  other  children  because  he  mixes 
play  so  generously  with  study. 

There  are  some  eighty  soldiers  recovering  here, 
who  lack  limbs.  These  men  are  taught  trades,  and 
when  they  leave,  are  able  to  earn  the  wages  of  any 
tailor,  blacksmith,  basket-weaver  or  wood-carver  in 
the  land.  It  is  really  most  surprising  to  see  the  dex- 
terous way  in  which  the  men  work.  Most  of  the 
soldiers  are  rather  lazy  and  Wurtz  said  they  were  a 
bad  influence;  for  my  part,  I  was  glad  to  hear  that 


An  Uncensored  Diary  73 

someone  at  least  did  not  make  the  most  of  every 
moment. 

In  the  halls  and  children's  rooms  are  many 
bright  pictures  of  fairy  tales  and  animals,  and  for- 
eign lands,  and  for  the  men,  pictures  of  all  the  great 
cripples  who  have  ever  lived.  For  Wurtz,  the  Herr 
Director,  told  us  it  was  very  good  for  the  men  to  hear 
about  what  others  like  themselves  had  been  able 
to  accomplish.  Wurtz  seemed  to  me  one  of  the 
kindest  men  I  ever  met.  The  children  flock  after 
him  and  call  him  "Papa."  They  clung  about  my 
skirts  and  said  "Mama,  Mama,  show  us  thy  little 
watch." 

After  this,  I  went  to  Baroness  von  Hissing's  to  tea. 
Oh,  welcome  was  the  hour  and  her  comfortable  chair ! 
She  is  small,  with  finely  chiselled  features;  her  move- 
ments are  quick,  like  those  of  a  highly  bred  animal, 
and  she  is  rather  excitable. 

We  sat  down  to  tea  and  cherry  tarts  and  I  asked 
her  when  she  was  next  going  to  Belgium.  She  can, 
of  course,  go  whenever  she  likes,  but  is  never  there 
ofiScially,  as  no  German  officer  may  take  his  wife  to 
Belgium.  The  General,  being  so  strict  a  gentleman, 
will  not  break  the  rule  even  for  himself,  and  so 
Baroness  von  Bissing  and  her  children  must  live 


a 


a 


74  An  Uncensored  Diary 

alone  in  Germany,  and  he  with  his  150  aides-de-camp 
in  his  palace  in  Brussels. 

"It  is  very  hard  to  be  without  my  husband  and  my 
eldest  son,"  she  said. 

Where  is  your  boy.'^"  I  asked. 
He  was  taken  prisoner  by  the  French,  wounded  in 
six  places.  When  he  got  well,  they  took  him  to 
prison  and  put  him  in  solitary  confinement  in  a  little 
tiny  cell  with  no  work  to  do  and  no  one  with  whom  he 
can  speak.  He  may  not  even  look  out  of  the  cell 
window,  for  they  painted  it  white.  Twice  a  day  he 
is  taken  for  a  walk  by  his  guards — and  this  all  be- 
cause the  French  thought  we  did  not  treat  Delcasse's 
son  properly.  Now,  because  they  took  my  boy,  and 
another,  we  have  put  six  of  their  men  in  solitary  con- 
finement. We  will  see  where  these  reprisals  will 
bring  us;  I  am  sorry  they  must  be,  but  we  have  more 
captured  men  than  they. 

"Why  did  they  put  Delcasse's  son  in  prison  in  the 
first  place  .'^ "  I  asked . 

"Because  he  was  an  impertinent  boy  and  called  his 
officers  *  dirty  dogs  of  Prussians,'  "  she  answered. 

I  can  imagine  that,  properly  and  fluently  to  insult 
one's  captors,  might  almost  be  worth  the  price. 

"I  fear  for  my   son's   mind,"   she  said.     "Soli- 


An  Uncensored  Diary  75 

tary  confinement  has  such  terrible  efiPects  some- 
times." 

This,   alas,   is   too   true.     My   German  teacher's 

friend  found  her  brother  in  a  Russian  prison,  quite 
mad  from  two  years'  solitude. 

The  conversation  turned  to  Essen  and  the  Krupps. 
Baroness  von  Bissing  said  she  and  her  husband 
were  going  next  week  to  Bertha  Krupp  von  Bohlen's 
latest  baby's  christening — the  General  is  to  be  god- 
father. 

*'I  like  to  go  to  Essen,"  continued  she,  "because 
cannon  and  such  things  interest  me." 

I  questioned  her  more  and  she  told  me  she  used  to 
invent  cannon  and  that  she  had  several  times  tried 
to  get  patents  for  these  remarkable  works  of  her  im- 
agination. 

"But  did  you  know  anything  about  such  things.^" 
I  asked. 

"No,"  she  said;  "but  I  had  the  intention  to  turn 
a  cannon  into  an  automobile,  or  an  automobile  into 
a  cannon,  as  I  thought  it  would  be  very  convenient 


in  war." 


I  agreed  that  it  might,  indeed,  and  laughingly 
told  her  she  looked  less  like  an  inventor  of  cannon 
than  almost  any  one  I  could  think  of. 


76  An  Uncensored  Diary 

"I  told  old  Herr  Krupp  about  my  cannon,"  she 
went  on,  "one  time  when  I  was  visiting  there,  and 
he  asked  me  if  I  would  like  to  see  the  ones  he  was 
making.  I  said  that,  as  I  knew  he  would  not  even 
let  the  Royal  Princesses  into  that  shop,  I  should 
be  quite  contented  to  see  the  rest  of  the  works.  But 
not  at  all;  the  old  gentleman  took  me  in  and  I  was 
the  first  woman  to  see  his  cannon  being  made." 

We  skipped  from  topic  to  topic  as  lightly  as  ga- 
zelles. From  Essen  we  jumped  to  the  Allies'  note 
to  Greece.  We  both  agreed  it  quite  outdid  Austria's. 
I  asked  her  if  Germany  had  seen  that  note,  and 
she  said  she  didn't  know,  and  she  wanted  to  know 
what  difference  it  would  make  anyway  if  Germany 
had. 

"What  would  Wilson,  that  dear  man  Wilson,  have 
done  if  his  son  had  gone  into  Mexico  and  been  mur- 
dered by  some  villainous  person  there.'*  Wouldn't 
he  have  said  something  severe  to  them?" 

I  thought  it  rather  an  appropriate  simile. 

The  Germans  apparently  hate  Wilson  and  Roose- 
velt equally — the  one  for  what  they  say  are  his  pro- 
Ally  tendencies,  and  the  other  for  having  turned 
against  his  former  friends  and  insulted  them,  after 
accepting  their  hospitality. 


An  Uncensored  Diary  77 

"Serbia  and  Montenegro  are  full  of  people  that 
need  to  be  punished,  but  Italy — Italy!" — said  Frau 
von  Bissing,  with  her  pretty  nose  in  the  air — "is  a 
nasty  little  dog  that  has  done  something  dirty  and 
must  be  kicked  out ! "  She  emphasizes  her  words  so 
heatedly  when  in  earnest,  that  I  never  can  help 
laughing. 

"Now  tell  me  about  your  work,  Baroness,"  I  said. 
She  modestly  answered  she  did  not  do  much  but 
supplement  the  work  of  other  people — which  isn't 
true  at  all. 

The  organization  which  Baroness  von  Bissing  started 
is  somewhat  on  the  line  of  the  work  of  the  Nationaler 
Frauendienst,  only  the  Von  Bissing  affair,  instead 
of  working  for  all  the  soldiers'  families,  concentrates 
on  the  wounded  and  their  dependents.  She  noticed, 
while  working  in  the  hospitals,  that  the  soldiers  were 
often  in  need  of  advice  and  that  they  seemed  to  want 
someone  to  whom  they  could  talk  about  their  wor- 
ries. Cause  enough  there  is  for  any  German  to 
worry  when  he  thinks  of  the  domestic  wife  or  sweet- 
heart he  left  behind  him,  driving  a  great  dray 
about  the  city  streets,  or  jumping  about  in  her  dark- 
blue  bloomers  in  a  subway  train,  taking  gentlemen's 
tickets. 


78  A  71  Uncen sored  Diary 

"We  are  afraid  our  women  will  grow  too  fond  of 
their  new  life  and  not  want  to  stay  at  home  and  have 
families,"  said  the  Baroness.  "We  must  make  de- 
pendence sweet  to  them  again."  Of  course,  I  took 
intense  joy  in  this  last  statement.  I  asked  if  they 
had  any  idea  of  polygamy  after  the  war,  and  she  said 
"No";  that  Germany  was  too  religious  a  State  for 
that — the  Church  parties  were  too  strong  to  allow 
it. 

"We  shall  have  to  do  everything  by  education. 
We  have  no  other  means.  One  of  our  tasks  now  in 
my  work  is  to  have  our  women  and  girls  talked  to, 
and  to  make  them  understand  that  they  will  not 
have  crippled  chil-dren  if  their  husband  or  lover 
comes   back    from   the   war   lacking   an   arm   or   a 

leg." 

"How  about  illegitimacy?  Will  you  sanction 
that.f^"  I  asked. 

"No,"  she  said.  "We  could  not  do  that  either,  or 
we  would  destroy  the  moral  foundations  of  our 
country,  but  we  are  at  this  moment  trying  to  get 
a  bill  through,  which  will  make  it  easier  for  the 
mothers  of  illegitimate  children,  and  harder  for  the 
fathers. 

"I  wish  to  have  sex  hygiene  taught  in  the  schools. 


An  Uncensored  Diary  79 

but  that  will  take  some  time,  as  the  teachers  must 
first  be  taught,"  she  said. 

I  do  not  doubt  that  Germany  will,  as  the  Baronin 
says,  be  able,  through  education,  to  w^ork  quite  as 
effectively  toward  the  repopulation  of  her  country  as 
she  worked  through  polygamy  after  the  Thirty  Years' 
War. 

"We  wish  very  much  to  make  our  men  religious 
again;  they  seem  to  have  lost  this  in  their  trench 
life,"  she  said,  sadly.  "So  the  clergymen  in  Ger- 
many are  working  with  our  organization." 

We  turned  back  to  the  invasion  of  Belgium. 

"England  is  a  disgusting  hypocrite,"  said  my  hos- 
tess emphatically.  "France  is  not  so  bad;  we  do  not 
hate  her,  but  England  is  in  this  war  solely  for 
money.  It  is  a  pleasant  little  joke  of  theirs,  about 
our  invading  Belgium  first,  but  I  know  that  the  Eng- 
lish and  French  were  there  before  us." 

Now,  if  the  wife  of  the  Governor  of  Belgium  believes 
this  so  earnestly,  one  may  imagine  how  firmly  the  rest 
of  Germany  believes  it. 

"I  have  seen  in  Antwerp,"  the  lady  went  on,  "a 
great  house,  seven  stories  high,  which  w^as  so  filled 
with  English  hospital  supplies  that  we  have  not  used 
them  all  up  yet." 


80  An  Uncensored  Diary 

"The  war,  as  we  hear  it  from  the  German  side,"  I 
said,  "is  not  the  same  war  at  all.  It  is  quite  another. 
When  accounts  conflict  so  radically,  what  is  a  poor, 
bewildered  American  to  do.^^" 

"When  you  are  prone  to  judge  us  harshly,  remem- 
ber we  have  had  the  English  censor  to  deal  with  for 
two  years,  and  that  there  are  seventy-five  corres- 
pondents in  the  Allied  countries  to  twelve  for  the 
Central  Powers.  Add  to  this  the  facts  that  England 
controls  the  cable  service  of  the  world  and  shows  an 
insatiable  curiosity  concerning  other  people's  mail." 

I  left  soon  after  this,  taking  with  me  voluminous 

pamphlets  on  her  work.     There  is  no  lack  of  literature 

and  reports  on  things  in  Germany.     I  am  sure,  if  I 

lived  here  long,  I  should  get  the  pamphlet  habit.     One 

might  write  on  the  ancient  cab  horses  here  and  what 

they  are  capable  of  on  two  fistsful  of  chopped  straw 

a  day,  or  on  the  evil  eflPect  on  one's  temper  of  riding  in 

a  flat-tired  taxicab ;  I  don't  think  any  one  has  written 

up  these  yet. 

June  25th, 

Went  to  the  Pestalozzi-Froehel  House,  I'd  shied 
off  for  a  long  while  on  account  of  its  name;  I  thought 
it  would  surely  be  dreadful.  It's  not,  except  that 
it's  even  more  exemplary  than  their  other  institu- 


An  Uncensored  Diary  81 

tions.  It's  a  combination  kindergarten  and  school 
for  children  up  to  about  fourteen,  and  a  teachers' 
training  school.  I  never  saw  any  thing  like  it !  Poor 
children  may  get  taken  care  of  and  Montessoried  for 
nothing,  just  as  carefully  as  if  they  lived  on  Fifth 
Avenue.  If  need  be,  they  may  even  spend  the  night 
there,  which  many  of  the  very  little  ones  do.  Count- 
ing the  girls  who  are  in  training,  the  teaching  force  is 
brought  up  to  eighty  for  about  two  hundred  and 
twenty  children.  There  is  apparently  nothing,  from 
cleaning  windows  to  nursing  children,  the  teachers  do 
not  learn.  They  live  in  the  building  until  they  are 
qualified  to  go  out  to  another  school  and  take  charge. 
The  children  adore  it.  They  have  gardens  and 
pet  animals  and  are  taught  everything  in  such  a  de- 
lightful way.  It  is  quite  like  the  Jugendheim  in 
Charlottenburg,  which  I  described  before,  only  on  a 
larger  scale.  The  numbers  of  children  have,  of  course, 
greatly  increased  since  the  war.  The  matron  told 
me  that  there  were  enough  such  places  in  Berlin  to 
accommodate  any  child  whose  mother  wished  it  to  go. 
They  are  not  all  quite  like  the  Pestalozzi-Froebel 
House  certainly,  but  on  that  order.  I  should  imagine 
that  the  refining  influence  of  such  schools  must,  and 
cannot  but  be,  great,  there  is  so  much  individual  at- 


82  An  Uncensored  Diary 

tention  given  and  such  stress  laid  on  daintiness  and 

cleanliness  and  politeness. 

July  1st. 

Went  to  the  Von  Gwinners'  to  lunch.  It  was  Von 
G winner  who  put  through  the  Bagdad  Railway 
scheme.  The  house  is  large,  but  there  is  a  life-size 
marble  statue  of  a  woman  playing  a  violin  in  the 
drawing-room.     He  has  a  beautiful  garden. 

Von  Gwinner  said  the  victor  in  this  war  would  be 
the  nation  which  declared  bankruptcy  two  weeks  after 
all  the  rest.  He  expects  they  will  all  be  taxed  to  the 
verge  of  poverty  when  the  war  is  over,  but  believes 
Germany  can  hold  out  the  longest.  The  eldest  Miss 
von  Gwinner  is  a  delightful  girl  and  one  of  the  best 
informed  and  most  intelligent  women  I've  met  here. 

Dined  with  Baron  von  Mumm  Tuesday  night  at  the 
Automobile  Club.  He  is  a  fraud,  and  Count  Montjelas 
with  him,  and  I  hope  to  see  them  both  soon  to  tell 
them  so.  There  was  a  crowd  in  the  Leipziger  Platz 
when  I  got  there,  and  the  two  men  were  standing  at 
the  window.  I  asked  what  it  was  and  they  said: 
"Nothing,  nothing,  only  the  usual  people  going 
home  from  work."  Now,  whether  they  knew  or  not, 
I  am  not  sure,  but  it  really  was  the  Socialists  pub- 
licly   demonstrating    their    disapproval    of    the    im- 


An  Uncensored  Diary  83 

prisonment  of  Liebknecht  for  two  years  and  a  half. 
That  shows  what  a  Berhii  riot  is.  I  looked  on  and 
never  knew  it! 

We've  heard  from  Freiherr  von  B that  there 

was  a  really  recognizable  one  in  Dusseldorf .  All  the  w^ 
women  went  to  the  City  Hall  and  demanded  more 
meat  and  potatoes.  The  Mayor  stuck  his  shaved  head 
out  of  the  window  and  tried  to  calm  them  with  tales 
of  beans  and  peas,  but  they  shouted  they  did  not 
want  them,  they  wanted  potatoes  and,  when  he  said 
he  hadn't  any,  they  smashed  all  the  window^s  that 
couldn't  resist  brick. 

"That's  just  like  the  poor,"  said  Von  B ,  "they 

won't  eat  anything  except  potatoes." 

Dined  with  the  Bocklins  last  night.  Baron  Bocklin 
is  back  for  a  few  days  from  headquarters  on  the  w^est- 
ern  front.  He  says  that  Verdun  will  fall  in  about  two 
weeks.  What  a  14th  of  Julv  for  the  French!  We 
asked  the  same  eternal  questions  about  the  duration 
of  the  war. 

"The  English  and  ourselves  have  just  reached  our 
maximum  strength,"  he  said.  "The  others  have  all 
passed  it." 

Of  course,  I  hate  to  dispute  wuth  Von  Falkenhayn 
and  Bocklin,  but  I  do  not  think  the  English  have 


84  An  Uncensored  Diary 

reached  their  maximum  strength.  Baron  BockHn 
thinks  they  will  be  able  to  secure  strategic  frontiers  on 
the  west,  and  Kurland  on  the  east.  Apparently 
the  Baltic  Provinces,  up  to  the  Peipus  Lake,  are 
waiting  with  longing  to  be  under  German  dominion. 
Only  10  per  cent,  of  the  population  is  German. 
"Ah,  but  that  is  the  educated  percentage,  you 
know." 

Yes,  I  do  know,  and  I  wonder  how  Russia  will  like 
having  a  German  Gibraltar  on  the  Baltic,  and 
whether  she  will  enjoy  moving  her  capital  to  Moscow, 
which  would  be  the  inevitable  outcome  of  having  the 
Germans  so  near  Petrograd. 

Baron  Bocklin  showed  us  pictures  he'd  taken  on  the 
front.  In  one  little  house  in  Belgium,  which  he'd 
made  his  headquarters,  a  woman  sneaked  in  on  him 
one  night  when  he  was  sleeping.  He  heard  her  and, 
jumping  up,  caught  her  by  the  throat.  She  had  a 
long  knife  in  her  hand.  As  Bocklin  was  taking  it  from 
her,  a  man  crawled  out  from  under  his  bed  with  a 
gun,  but  was  covered  by  the  sergeant  who  came  to 
Bocklin's  rescue.  The  Baron  let  both  assassins  go,  in- 
stead of  having  them  shot  as  he  had  the  right  to  do. 
Bocklin's  mother  was  an  American,  and  his  grand- 
mother an  Englishwoman. 


All  Un censored  Diary  85 

Heard  a  delightful  story  about  ]Mr.  Gerard  from 

Mrs.    .       She    said    that    to    tease    Countess 

B he    asked    her    why    she    hadn't    married 

some  nice  stockbroker  in  New  York,  who  could  have 
provided  her  with  much  better-looking  clothes,  and 

more  of  them,  than  Count  B .     She  went  home 

in  a  rage  and  told  the  Count,  who  also  became  furi- 
ous and  they  both  told  all  Berlin  that  Mr.  Gerard 
was  so  anti-German  that  he  disapproved  of  German- 
American  marriages.  Mrs.  Gerard  implores  her 
husband  to  save  his  jokes  for  those  who  have  a  sense 
of  humour  but  he  says,  no  matter  what  resolutions  he 

makes.  Countess  B is  more  than  he  can  resist, 

and  his  remarks  grow  always  worse  instead  of  better. 

July  6th. 

Just  back  from  three  days  in  Hamburg.  We  went 
there  with  the  dreariest  possible  recollections  of  the 
place — rain,  cold,  no  food,  and  no  people.  This  time, 
fortified  with  letters  of  introduction  brought  us  by 
that  most  amiable  of  women.  Countess  Gotzen,  we 
met  with  kindness  and  the  fatted  calf.  Our  rooms 
looked  over  the  water  where  were  sail-boats  and  w^hite 
swans,  and  many  w^illow  trees  and  roses  on  the  banks 
of  the  lake,  and  from  behind  the  end  of  the  harbour. 


86  An  Uncensored  Diary 

a  great  gray  Zeppelin  swam  toward  us  and  around 
and  around  in  the  still  morning. 

The  waiter  who  brought  our  breakfast  wore  the 
iron  cross.  I  am  sure  he  deserved  it,  for  he  was  both 
frozen  and  shot  to  pieces  in  Russia. 

"For  what,"  I  asked  him,  " are  those  two  small  pills 
in  that  dish.^" 

"Saccharin,  gnddige  frau/'  said  he. 

I  did  not  know  it  was  so  horrid  sweet,  and  ruined 
my  coffee. 

That  night  we  went  to  the  Max  Warburgs'  to  dine. 
They  are  very  delightful  people;  their  house  is  large 
and  nice,  their  sense  of  humour  a  joy  to  find,  and  be- 
sides that,  Mrs.  Warburg  was  well  dressed  and  wore 
— oh,  wonder  of  wonders  in  a  German  woman — silk 
stockings.  Mr.  Warburg  is  one  of  the  biggest  bank- 
ers of  Germany,  and  is  certainly  the  nicest.  He  de- 
clared American  business  men  and  American  finan- 
ciers to  be  the  most  charming  and  the  most  unin- 
formed men  in  the  world. 

"They  know  nothing  of  international  affairs,  not 
one  thing,"  said  he.  "And  they  do  not  even  know 
their  own  country  thoroughly.  We  wonder  over 
here  how  they  can  possibly  get  along  with  such  little 
knowledge  of  the  affairs  of  the  world."     He  said  he 


An  Uncensored  Diary  87 

told  his  brother,  Mr.  Paul  Warburg,  that  it's  easy 
enough  for  him  to  be  a  big  man  in  America,  where 
there  is  so  little  competition,  but  just  let  him  come 
to  Germany  and  try  it.  One  may  think  America 
is  work-mad,  but  it  seems  a  shiftless,  lazy  place  after 
Germany. 

Mr.  Warburg  says  he  does  not  see  the  end  of  the  ^ 
war  but  believes  firmly  that  Germany  will  not  be 
beaten.  The  harvest,  which  everyone  had  been  say- 
ing would  be  so  marvellous,  he  says  will  be  good  but 
not  first  class,  and  if  the  sun  does  not  soon  shine,  it 
will  not  even  be  good.  Well,  harvest  or  no  harvest, 
we  were  given  a  most  royal  dinner — roast  beef,  our 
first  in  Germany,  and  many  courses.  We  even  had 
nectarines  from  their  hot-house  in  the  country,  and  the 
most  glorious  big  strawberries  with  plenty  of  sugar. 

I  think  the  Germans  are  amazingly  broad-minded. 
They  think  we  are  their  enemies,  and  yet  they  are 
polite  to  us — frontier  officials  and  petty  officials  al- 
ways excepted — and  it's  not  politics  either  with  the 
private  individuals. 

The  next  morning,  Mrs.  Aufschlager  sent  her  car- 
riage for  me.  She  is  the  wife  of  the  man  who  sup- 
plies most  of  Germany's  powder,  but  she  has  only  one 
pair  of  horses  and  an  ancient  coachman  left  her  now. 


88  An  Un censored  Diary 

"And  before,"  she  said,  "I  used  to  tire  out  two  pairs 
of  horses  and  my  chauffeur  every  day." 

I  can  well  believe  it,  for  two  mornings  with  her 
left  me  panting  for  breath;  and  she  is  no  longer 
young.  We  went  everywhere.  The  women  in  Ham- 
burg are  almost  surpassing  the  women  in  Berlin  in  the 
amount  of  relief  work  they  do.  They  have  Frauen- 
vereine  and  kriegshilfe,  and  kriegskuchen  and  Kinder- 
fiirsorge,  and  Red  Cross  organizations  as  thick  as 
grass  all  over  the  city.  It's  no  use  describing  what 
each  does;  suffice  it  to  say  that  the  kitchens  feed 
about  one  fifth  of  the  population  each  day — in  the 
schools,  in  restaurants,  or  if  the  women  wish  to  fetch 
their  food,  in  the  homes.  The  price  for  a  huge  bowl 
of  food  is  30  pfennigs,  or  even  20  pfennigs.  If  they 
are  too  poor,  they  get  it  for  nothing.  More  and  more 
kitchens  are  started  each  day.  Some  people  want 
home  cooking  to  be  forbidden  entirely  until  after  the 
war.  The  kitchens  will  all  stop  then  and  home  cook- 
ing be  encouraged  as  much  as  possible.  Of  course, 
many  of  the  school  children  will  still  get  their 
lunches,  as  they  have  for  years,  and  there  will  be 
cheap  restaurants,  but  everywhere  they  say  they  do 
not  want  to  have  central  cooking  a  permanent  in- 
stitution. 


An  Uncensored  Diary  89 

There  is  one  thing  in  Hamburg  which  they  have  not 
in  Berhn.     This  is  the  systematic  collecting  and  mak- 
ing over  of  old  clothes.     I  have  not  seen  anything 
which  has  made  me  feel  more  the  pressingly  economical 
regime  under  which  the  people  are  living  than  the  large 
building  given  up  to  the  regeneration  of  old  clothes. 
Except  for  the  horses  which  pull  the  vans  full  of  cast- 
off  wearing  apparel  up  to  the  store-room  door,  all  the 
brain  work  and  hand  work  is  done  by  women.     First, 
everything  is  fumigated,  then  sorted,  pressed,  ripped 
up,  washed,  ironed,  or  dyed;  men's  trousers  made  into 
little  girls'  skirts,  children's  coats,  boys'  clothes.    Old 
things  are  renovated,  if  not  entirely  transformed,  and 
out  of  the  left-over  pieces  are  made  patch  quilts  for 
the  soldiers.     Woollen  things  are  treasured,  an  old 
glove,  or  cap,  or  shawl  may  be  torn  to  pieces  and 
woven  anew.     The  ingenuity  with  which  every  rag 
is  used  is  astonishing.     I  thought  of  my  dear  mother 
and  wished  she  might  be  there  to  see,  only  I  knew  she 
would  then  be  more  convinced  than  ever  that  I  was  a 
wasteful,  extravagant  girl.     The  girls  who  do  the 
work  are  paid,  but  the  ladies  in  charge  give  their 
services  free  to  the  Hamburg  Kriegshilfe. 

When  the  clothes  are  old  no  more,  but  quite  new 
and  resplendent,  they  are  sent  to  another  large  build- 


90  Aji  TJnceiisored  Diary 

ing,  also  rent  free,  where  they  are  given  away.  This 
is  the  central  and  largest  of  sixty-five  workshops  run 
by  the  Jcriegshilfe.  New  clothes  are  made  here,  and 
military  supplies.  In  the  sand-bag  department  I  saw 
piles  and  piles  of  bags  made  out  of  some  Canton 
flannel  stuff,  brightly  patterned. 

**\Miy  do  you  use  this  nice  goods  instead  of  sack- 
cloth?" I  asked. 

"Oh,"  said  the  ladies,  "we  had  quantities  of  that 
brought  in  from  Poland." 

"Stolen!"  I  cried. 

"No!  "  was  the  horrified  chorus.     "It  is  booty." 

Now  the  difference  w^as  a  fine  distinction  I  suppose 
I  should  have  been  able  to  make,  but  I  did  not  think  I 
would  dispute  it,  so  left  them  still  animatedly  dis- 
cussing the  Amerikanerin  who  did  not  know  mo- 
rality from  what  she  called  "swiping." 

The  army  supplies  are  paid  for  but  all  the  rest  is 
given  away,  and  not  a  pfennig  to  pay.  Thirty  thou- 
sand families  get  their  clothes  here  for  nothing !  There 
are  the  usual  investigations  made  first,  so  that  people 
may  not  get  more  than  they  need.  Before  a  woman's 
baby  is  born,  she  is  given  the  proper  outfit  for  it:  al- 
together, it  seemed  to  me,  that  it  was  better  to  be 
poor  in  Hamburg  than  proud  somewhere  else. 


An  Uncensored  Diary  91 

We  drove  to  the  station  where  the  trains  of  wounded 
come  in  and  saw  them  making  ready  with  food 
and  stretchers  and  flowers  and  a  band  of  music  to  re- 
ceive some  men  from  Russia.  These  exchange 
wounded  do  not  look  so  badly  as  the  men  straight 
from  the  front,  as  clean  clothes  are  given  them  at  the 
frontier.  We  went,  too,  to  the  shipyards  in  the  free 
port.  One  drives  through  a  w^hite-tiled  tunnel  under 
the  river  to  get  there  and  Frau  Aufschlager  was  much 
amused  at  me  for  taking  such  an  interest  in  it. 
Evidently  she  thought  we  had  tunnels  under  every 
brook  in  America.  The  shipyards  are  busy  but  the 
great  storehouses  in  the  port  show  no  sign  of  life  at  all. 
Every  barge  and  crane  lies  idle  in  the  harbour,  while 
the  English  battleships  crouch  at  the  German  gate. 

Went  to  the  Warburgs'  to  tea  and  saw  their  de- 
lightful children.  Mr.  Warburg,  they  say,  is  the  real 
brains  of  the  Hamburg-American  Line,  and  not 
Ballin.  Billy  was  talking  to  Ballin  to-day.  The 
interview  would  be  rather  sensational  if  printed  in  our 
papers,  but  would  give,  I  think,  a  false  impression  of 
Germany.  For  instance,  he  said  Germany  must  have 
either  the  largest  fleet  in  the  world,  or  Antwerp  and 
Calais.  He  believes  in  no  treaties  and  has  no  hope  of 
peace  being  made  soon. 


92  An  Uncensored  Diary 

Dined  at  a  restaurant  up  the  lake  with  Mr.  Mor- 
gan, our  Consul-General.  Mr.  Reidemann,  head  of 
the  Standard  Oil  in  German3%  was  there,  and  his 
American  sister-in-law;  also  Count  Quadt,  the  Prus- 
sian Minister.  We  got  to  talking  American  politics, 
and  the  Germans  to  commenting  on  the  deplorable 
ignorance  of  our  representatives  and  congressmen. 
"Yes,  indeed,"  Mr.  Morgan  said.  "Do  you  know 
what  happened  when  one  of  our  congressmen  pro- 
posed to  import  twenty-five  gondolas  to  put  on  the 
river  in  Washington.'*  Another  congressman,  who 
was  of  an  economical  turn  of  mind,  got  up  and  said: 
*  Why  not  import  a  male  and  a  female,  and  let  nature 
do  the  rest.'^' "  Billy  and  I  roared  and  the  Germans 
were  horrified  that  we  could  laugh  at  our  Government 
so.  Reidemann  began  wondering  where  all  the  swans 
in  Hamburg  had  gone,  in  order  to  change  the  subject, 
and  Mr.  Morgan  said  they'd  all  been  eaten  and  that  it 
was  an  outrage  as  they  were  very  rich,  having  been 
left  a  fortune  for  food  by  an  old  lady.  Reidemann, 
thinking  Morgan  was  quite  serious  about  the  eating, 
vehemently  denied  such  cannibalism,  and  then  won- 
dered why  I  laughed  at  him. 

"How's  the  Standard  Oil,  Mr.  Reidemann?"  I 
asked;  "are  you  bankrupt  yet.^" 


An  Uncensored  Diary  93 

"Certainly  not,"  said  he.  "Go  home  and  relieve 
the  minds  of  the  company,  and  tell  them  I  have  not 
ruined  them  yet.  We  have  immense  wells  in  Ru- 
mania and  get  all  the  oil  we  want." 

"Then,  why  in  the  world  are  they  using  gasolene 
made  out  of  coal?"  said  I.  "Is  it  for  the  pleasure 
they  take  in  this  new  discovery?" 

"They  cannot  afford  the  trains  for  transport,"  said 
Reidemann.  This  did  not  sound  as  if  business  was  so 
very  flourishing  to  me.  I  asked  him  if  they  would 
use  the  coal  product  after  the  war,  and  he  said  "No." 

When  we  were  ready  to  go  home,  I  stepped  out  on 
the  balcony  over  the  water.  The  canoes  were  thick 
below  me,  and  I  noticed  one,  paddled  by  a  woman, 
which  was  being  shoved  about  by  all  the  others.  It 
was  the  Fourth  of  July  and  I  saw  the  canoe  flew  the 
American  flag.  Evidently  the  others  were  trying  to 
make  the  girl  take  it  down,  and  I  could  hear  her 
angrily  answering  them  back.  Then  one  man  came 
and,  taking  the  flag-pole  in  his  hand,  broke  it  off. 
The  girl  quickly  reached  for  his,  and  did  the  same, 
then  both  snatched  their  own  back.  The  girl's 
canoe  was  still  being  shoved  about  and  angry  voices 
shouted  at  her.  She  held  the  flag  in  her  hand  till  a 
man  in  a  punt,  with  two  other  men,  caught  her  flag 


94  An  Uncensored  Diary 

and,  tearing  it  off,  threw  it  in  the  water  and  spat  on  it. 
The  girl,  in  a  fury,  struck  him  with  the  stick  and  he 
raised  his  canoe  paddle  to  her.  By  this  time,  I,  who 
am  not  an  hysterical  woman,  was  in  such  a  rage  and 
fury  of  patriotism,  that  there,  before  everyone,  I 
stamped  my  feet  and  burst  into  angry  tears.  I  was 
so  angry  I  could  not  speak.  Count  Quadt  and  the 
Reidemanns  had  gone,  but  Billy  and  Mr.  Morgan,  who 
had  come  out  on  the  balcony  for  the  last  scene,  were 
swearing  with  rage.  I  went  into  the  next  room  where 
there  were  no  people,  for  I  was  terribly  mortified 
with  myself,  but  could  not  help  the  tears  running 
down  my  face.  The  head  waiter  followed  me  and 
tried  to  console  me.  He  did  all  but  pat  me  on  the 
back  and  call  me  a  poor  darling. 

"I  am  so  sorry,  madam,"  he  said.  "So  very  sorry. 
These  Germans  are  rude  men  with  no  manners  at  all. 
I  am  a  Hungarian  and  no  one  in  my  country  would 
treat  a  woman  so.  I  love  America,  and  if  I  could  get 
my  passports,  I  would  go  back  to-morrow!" 

If  only  one  could  have  done  something,  but  we 
were  too  far  away,  and  the  only  Americans  in  the 
crowd.  We  would  only  have  been  arrested  immedi- 
ately. The  girl  came  in  to  the  American  Con- 
sulate in  the  morning.     She  was  badly   scratched 


An  Uncensored  Diary  95 

up  and  still  so  angry  she  cried  while  telling  the 
Consul.  Some  of  the  women,  she  said,  had  cried 
"Shame!"  to  the  men,  and  others  had  offered  to  see 
her  home,  but  she  said  she  wished  no  German  near 
her.  She  said  she  had  been  to  the  police  and  given 
the  numbers  of  the  men's  boats,  and  they  promised 
her  to  punish  the  men,  but  advised  her  not  to  tell  the 
Consul-General  about  the  fuss.  She  answered  that 
she  was  on  her  way  to  his  office  as  fast  as  she  could  go. 
The  Consul-General  demanded  an  apology  from  the 
Burgomaster,  and  that  the  men  be  severely  punished. 
The  apology  has  been  made. 

Went  to  Mrs.  Reidemann's  to  tea,  as  we  couldn't 
go  to  dinner.  She  is  fattening  two  pigs  in  a  pen 
by  the  front  door  and  twenty  convalescent  soldiers  in 
her  ballroom,  so  I  think  she  is  doing  her  share  for  her 
adopted  country.  Her  head  huntsman  had  just  been 
killed  and  her  six  gardeners  are  all  in  the  war.  Her 
orchid  house  is  ruined  from  lack  of  care  and  she  says 
the  garden  is  hopeless.  It  was  not  too  far  gone,  how- 
ever, to  produce  a  huge  bunch  of  pink  roses  for  me, 
each  one  as  big  as  a  cabbage.  The  next  day,  when 
we  came  home  to  Berlin,  they  were  too  full  blown  to 
bring  with  me,  but  I  did  bring  the  pound  of  butter 
Mrs.  Aufschlager  gave  me  and  the  twenty-four  lumps 


96  An  Uncensored  Diary 

of  sugar,  and  a  piece  of  cake  Mr.  Morgan  sent  wrap- 
ped up  in  a  newspaper.  The  newspaper  hurt  Billy's 
feelings,  but  I  would  have  that  sugar. 

July  7th. 
The  Allied  offensive  seems  very  heavy.  As  Mr. 
Morgan  said  the  other  night:  "The  Germans  are 
getting  vicious;  they  got  a  crack  in  the  eye  in  Austria, 
and  another  by  the  French  on  the  west,  and  the 
English  are  biting  their  heels."  The  confidence  and 
placidity  of  the  people,  as  a  whole,  under  this,  the 
worst  fighting  of  the  whole  war,  are  remarkable.  All 
I  have  seen  them  do  was  to  take  it  out  on  one  lone 
woman  in  a  canoe, 

July  11th. 

Lunched  with  Baron  von  Pritwitz,  Baroness  Bock- 
lin,  Herr  Horstmann,  and  another  man  from  the 
Foreign  Office.  We  were  at  Hillers,  and  the  men  felt 
rather  fed  up  on  war  and  politics — which  they  well 
may  be  considering  that  the  rain  is  likely  to  ruin 
the  harvest,  and  the  Russians  still  seem  as  enthusi- 
astic as  ever  about  taking  prisoners,  while  the  French 
and  English  manage  to  cause  considerable  annoyance 
— so,  for  these  reasons,  we  carried  on  a  conversation 


An  Uncensored  Diary  97 

one  might  have  translated  into  any  language  with 
equal  propriety.  We  decided  that  the  Friedlanders, 
who  own  all  the  coal  mines  in  Germany,  must  ask  us 
all  to  the  country  in  order  that  I  may  show  them  how 
to  ride  on  a  board  behind  a  motor-boat.  Billy  and  I 
don't  know  the  Friedlanders,  but  apparently  they 
won't  notice  that. 

Horstmann  then  said  he'd  heard  I  needed  clothes 
and  was  going  home  unless  I  got  some  quickly,  so  he'd 
made  engagements  with  three  of  the  largest  dress- 
makers in  Berlin  for  me!  I  was  supposed  to  have  a 
German  lesson,  but  what  was  I  to  do.^  They  all  four 
marched  me  down  to  Alfred  Marie's  and  com- 
manded the  models  to  stand  forth.  I  can  say  I  never 
expected,  when  I  came  to  Germany  a  serious-minded 
woman  seeking  information  on  the  "woman  ques- 
tion," to  go  dress  hunting  with  Von  Jagow's  secre- 
tary, and  two  more  men  from  the  Foreign  Office.  I 
had  nothing  to  say  about  the  clothes;  Horstmann  knew 
a  great  deal  more  about  it  than  I,  so  I  came  away 
with  a  hat  and  a  black-and-white  dress  chic  enough  to 
ruin  my  reputation  in  Berlin. 

I  went  to  see  Abraham's  kitchens  to-day.  All  the 
women  there  thought  the  dear  man  was  too  good  to 
live  much  longer.     He  has  twenty-nine  mittlestands- 


98  All  Uncensored  Diary 

huchen,  which  feed  36,000  people  three  plates  twice  a 
day  for  sixty  pfennigs,  soldiers  fifty  pfennigs;  forty- 
four  hinderJcuchen  which  supply  24,000  children  soup 
once  a  day,  usually  for  nothing,  the  State  Daying 
eighty-one  pfennig;  and  he  has  thirty -five  kinderhorts 
in  schools  or  in  his  kitchens,  which  take  care  of  3,000 
children  from  three  until  six  o'clock.  The  kinder- 
horts and  the  kinderkuche  he  had  before  the  war,  but 
with  far  fewer  children.  Also  he  has  one  day  nursery 
for  babies,  and  I  should  say  that  is  a  rather  good  job 
for  any  gentleman.  Abraham  has  no  end  of  women 
under  him.  They  do  all  the  actual  work.  He  is  the 
head  brains  of  the  Kinder-Volkskuchen-Verein,  and 
I  think  deserves  immense  credit  for  the  work  he  does. 
Some  of  the  kitchens  pay  for  themselves,  and  the  rest 
is  given  by  charity.  More  kitchens  are  being  opened 
by  him  daily.  They  scorn  the  gulash  cannonen,  which 
the  city  runs  in  some  districts,  but  I  imagine  it  is 
better  to  buy  soup  out  of  a  pushcart  than  not  to  have 
anything  but  a  piece  of  beastly  war-bread. 

July  12th. 

Went  to  see  Dr.  Gertrude  Baumer  this  morning. 
She  is,  I  suppose,  better  known  than  any  other 
woman   in   Germany   except   the   Kaiserin,   or  the 


An  Uncensored  Diary  99 

Crown  Princess.  I  asked  her  every  question  it  was 
possible  for  me  to  think  of,  and  she  answered  in 
nervous,  broken  English.  They  do  not  know  how 
many  new  industries  women  have  entered  since  the  war 
began,  nor  can  they  tell  how  many  more  women  are 
working  now  than  before.  The  social  insurance 
statistics  give  an  approximate  idea,  but  naturally  the 
number  changes  from  day  to  day  as  the  field  of  their 
work  enlarges.  There  are  great  numbers  in  the 
metal  industries  doing  half-skilled  work,  and  also 
women  doing  the  skilled  work.  They  manage  the 
travelling  cranes  in  iron  and  steel  foundries,  a  thing 
no  employer  believed  was  possible.  They  do  what  is 
called  "electro-technical"  work,  and  the  employers 
have  discovered  through  this  that  unskilled  labour 
(if  intelligent)  may  be  trained  to  new  work  with  great 
rapidity.  For  instance,  in  the  Algemene-Eledrici- 
tats  Gesellschaft  there  are  17,000  men  and  17,000 
women  all  doing  the  same  work.  Women  work  at 
mining  also,  but  only  in  the  open  mines.  They  are 
not  allowed  underground.  They  dig  the  coal  and  also 
load  the  cars.  In  the  iron  foundries  they  do  not 
work  directly  at  the  blast  furnaces,  but  near  them. 
Apparently,  they  are  unable  to  stand  the  heat.  As 
yet,  the  women  seem  to  have  suffered  no  ill  effects 


100  An  U licensor ed  Diary 

from  their  work  in  the  iron  industries,  the  mines,  and 
the  munition  factories,  but  undoubtedly  they  will 
if  permitted  to  work  long  at  these  trades.  The  em- 
ployers find  them  intelligent,  but  far  more  nervous 
than  men.  Noise  and  heat  they  are  particularly 
unable  to  stand,  and  of  course  the  lifting  of  heavy 
weights  such  as  they  must  handle  in  the  munition 
factories  is  injurious.  The  employers  declare  they 
wish  to  keep  women  in  the  industries  which  they  have 
entered,  and  it  will  be  quite  a  fight  to  prevent  their 
going  on  working  in  many  of  them.  There  w^ere  a 
number  of  industries  in  which  women  were  forbidden 
to  work  before  the  war,  but  since  1914  they  have  come 
into  many  which  no  one  had  ever  thought  of  putting 
a  ban  upon,  as  it  had  occurred  to  no  one  that  a  woman 
was  ever  likely  to  enter  upon  such  a  career.  I  must 
confess  I  never  expected  to  see  a  woman  sitting  in  a 
glass  cage  and  managing  an  electric  crane,  which 
swung  buckets  of  molten  metal,  or  red-hot  blocks  of 
iron  and  steel  through  the  air. 

Now  that  all  bans  are  off,  and  women  may  work  a 
twelve-hour  day  and  overtime,  and  at  night  on  an 
eight-hour  shift,  and  in  industries  where  before  they 
were  forbidden  by  law  or  custom,  they  are  feeling  very 
emancipated,  but  after  the  war,  those  enlightened 


An   Uncensored  Diary  101 

beings,  who  try  to  care  for  the  health  of  women,  will 
endeavour  to  get  laws  passed  forbidding  their  working 
at  mining,  or  munition  making,  or  in  foundries. 
Night  work  will  be  forbidden,  and  the  ten-hour  day 
reestablished.  There  is  little  hope  of  an  eight-hour 
day  for  women  for  a  long  while  yet. 

It  is  hard  to  compare  women's  wages  to-day  with 
men's  wages  before  the  war,  as  many  women  are  doing 
work  which  no  one  ever  did  before.  One  cannot  say 
they  get  the  same  wages  as  men.  When  they  step 
into  a  man's  job,  they  get  his  wages  unless  they  work 
fewer  hours  than  he  did.  For  piece-work,  they  are 
paid  at  the  same  rate  as  the  men  were,  but  do  less 
work  than  the  men  did.  At  much  of  the  work,  the 
women  are  new  and  make  mistakes,  so  the  employer 
does  not  pay  them  so  highly  as  he  would  a  man.  The 
employers  say  that,  although  they  are  pleased  with 
the  female  labour,  and  wish  to  keep  the  women  after 
the  war,  their  profits  are  not  quite  so  high  as  with 
male  employees. 

The  machinery  in  the  factories  is  not  being  changed 
for  the  women;  they  work  with  the  same  tools  as  the 
men.  A  few  more  safety  devices  are  put  in,  but  all 
machinery  was  so  excellently  protected  before  the 
war,  little  extra  was  necessary.     If  the  machinery 


102  An  Uncensored  Diary 

had  been  changed,  there  would  be  more  likelihood  of 
women  holding  their  jobs  after  the  war. 

Only  from  three  to  four  per  cent,  of  the  women  are 
unionized.  Those  who  are,  are  nearly  all  in  the  men's 
trade  unions.  The  only  union  which  will  not  admit 
them  is  the  lithographic  union.  In  the  other  unions, 
the  men  work  to  help  the  women  along  in  the  wage 
question,  the  matter  of  hours,  and  so  on.  In  this 
way,  they  succeed  better  than  when  they  try  to  have 
their  own  unions. 

Dr.  Baumer  is  very  anxious  to  get  half-day  work 
for  married  women  in  factories  after  the  war.  They 
could  then  continue  to  earn  a  small  but  much-needed 
wage. 

Employers  are  not  allowed  to  discharge  women  for 
child-bearing.  They  must  give  them  two  weeks'  holi- 
day before  the  child's  birth,  and  four  weeks'  after. 
During  this  period,  they  get  two  thirds  of  their  wages 
from  their  sickness  insurance.  Also,  they  may  get 
their  doctor  and  medicines  free.  At  present,  soldiers' 
wives  are  getting  120  marks  from  the  State  for  each 
baby,  and  half  a  mark  a  day  extra  if  they  nurse  the 
child  themselves.  Dr.  Baumer  thinks  it  may  be  pos- 
sible to  keep  this  system  after  the  war  for  all  families 
whose  income  is  under  2,500  marks  a  year. 


All  Uncetisored  Diary  103 

As  for  suffrage,  Doctor  Baumer  said  that  all  the 
Social  Democrats  and  the  Radical-Liberals  are  pro. 
They  do  not  have  regular  suffrage  organizations  here, 
as  in  England  and  the  United  States,  but  they  work 
for  it  through  other  organizations,  such  as  the  Na- 
tional Council  of  the  Women  of  Germany,  which  has 
600,000  members,  and  of  which  Doctor  Baumer  is  the 
head.  The  interest  in  suffrage  is  more  a  general  polit- 
ical interest  than  a  professional  interest  or  desire  for 
certain  rights  the  women  feel  they  do  not  have.  They 
are  anxious  for  a  more  direct  hand  in  the  governing 
of  their  country.  Women  sit  on  the  school  boards  all 
over  Germany.  In  Weimar  they  must  sit  on  the 
boards  for  the  care  of  the  poor;  in  other  provinces, 
they  may  sit  on  the  Poor  Law  Board  if  they  wish. 
They  are  also  on  the  committees  for  hospitals,  orphan- 
ages, institutions  for  the  protection  and  care  of  chil- 
dren, the  inspection  of  dwellings,  theatres,  libraries, 
and  markets.  They  even  sit  on  the  social  insurance 
boards,  though  it  is  rather  difficult  to  elect  them,  as 
the  German  ballot  can  usually  manage  to  dodge  an 
unwelcome  candidate.  The  last  elections  were  very 
favourable  to  the  women,  however. 

A  law  has  just  been  passed,  admitting  women  as 
teachers  in  the  boys'  schools.     In  the  mixed  schools 


104  An  Uncensored  Diary 

they  will  have  half  women  teachers,  and  half  men;  and 
in  the  girls'  schools,  two  thirds  of  the  teachers  will  be 
women.  There  are,  with  very  few"  exceptions,  no 
married  women  schoolmistresses;  the  rule  is  that  there 
shall  be  none,  but  apparently  this  is  one  of  the  rare 
cases  where  a  German  rule  may  be  stretched.  The 
schools  are  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  different 
states,  while  the  factories  and  industries  are  under 
the  Empire.  Thus,  all  the  states  may  have  different 
school  laws,  but  laws  governing  labour,  wdth  w^ork- 
men's  compensation  and  insurance,  are  the  same,  and 
there  is  a  ten-hour  day  all  over  Germany  for  w^omen, 
instead  of  having  eleven  hours  in  Bavaria  and  eight 
in  Mecklenburg. 

I  asked  if  many  girls  were  coming  in  from  the  coun- 
try to  the  cities  to  work,  and  Doctor  Baumer  said 
"yes."  When  I  asked  what  they  were  trying  to  do  to 
prevent  this,  she  said  that  a  better  school  system  in 
the  country  would  be  the  only  thing.  They  are  try- 
ing to  have  compulsory  continuation  schools  which 
will  keep  the  girls  until  the  age  of  sixteen  or  eighteen, 
and  teach  them  farming  and  cattle  raising,  and  I  sup- 
pose, cooking  and  sewing — for  those  evils  are  just  as 
necessary  in  the  country  as  in  the  city. 

AYhen  I  wanted  to  know  what  they  would  do  to 


A71  Uncensored  Diary  105 

encourage  the  birth  rate,  she  repeated  what  she  had 
said  about  continuing  the  120  mark  pensions  for  the 
mothers.  They  also  propose  to  give  a  proportionately 
larger  salary  to  State  officials  with  families.  Since  there 
are  more  State  officials  than  there  is  population — as  far 
as  I  can  see — I  should  think  this  last  might  prove  re- 
munerative in  offspring.  Every  one  hoots  at  the  idea 
of  polygamy,  or  soldiers  getting  leave,  in  order  to  go 
home  and  beget  a  family.  The  best  answer  to  the 
leave  question,  they  say,  is  the  fact  that  many 
soldiers  get  no  leave  at  all.  The  day  they  are  about 
to  start  for  home,  an  attack  is  made,  and  in  the 
trenches  the  men  must  stay.  Evidently,  the  question 
of  what  Germany  is  going  to  do  to  increase  the  birth 
rate  is  a  far  more  exciting  matter  for  speculation  else- 
where than  here. 

I  asked  if  the  women  had  become  less  conventional 
in  their  ideas  about  love  and  marriage  since  the  war, 
and  Doctor  Baumer  declared  they  were  far  more  un- 
conventional. As  I  didn't  have  time  to  ask  her  more, 
or  rather  thought  the  poor  woman  had  suffered 
enough  from  me,  I  left  this  topic  in  this  vague  state, 
and  came  home. 

Dined  with  the  Von  Kleists' — quite  a  large  party. 
I  sat  between  M.  Roland,  the  Spanish  secretary,  and 


106  An  Uncensored  Diary 

Count  Montjelas.     The   latter  is   exonerated  from 

the  charge  I  made  against  him  the  other  day.     He 

did  not  know  there  was  a  riot  going  on  that  night  in 

front  of  the  Automobile  Club.     He  said,  when  he  saw 

it  in  the  papers,  he  knew  I'd  think  he  had  lied,  but  he 

wished  me  to  know  he  knew  no  more  than  I  that 

night. 

July  13th. 

We  went  to  the  Kriegspresseamt  to  arrange  about 
going  to  Belgium.  I  was  dressed  for  a  lunch  party  so 
didn't  look  much  like  a  serious-minded  journalist,  but 
they  will  let  me  go  with  Billy.  The  first  thing  that  the 
Herr  Major  did  was  to  hand  me  a  shell  made  by  the 
Bethlehem  Steel  Co.  I  made  a  dreadful  face,  which 
might  have  meant  either:  "Why  didn't  the  wretched 
thing  explode,"  or:  "What  a  wicked  shame  for 
Americans  to  have  made  it." 

"Don't  blame  me  for  that  now,"  I  said.  "I  come 
from  Bethlehem,  but  my  father  is  only  a  harmless 
college  president  and  not  in  the  Steel  Company." 

"Oh,"  cried  Herr  Griesel.  "That  grant  unifersity 
Lehigh !  I  haf  a  cousin  wot  is  married  mit  a  professor 
there.  They  haf  sent  me  putiful  bictures  of  Lehigh." 
So  I  was  saved  their  scorn. 

We  were  introduced  to  an  Excellenz  Coates,  who 


An  Uncensored  Diary  107 

will  guide  us  through  Belgium.  He  seemed  very 
nice  and  had  one  blind  eye,  which  I  regretted  for  his 
sake  but  thought  might  be  useful  to  us,  as  they  say 
one  is  watched  most  vigilantly — not  that  I  expect  to 
do  anything  very  devilish,  but  I  do  hate  to  be  under 
supervision. 

Lunched  at  the  Lays'.  They  had  a  party  for  Prince 
Christian  of  Hesse  and  his  wife,  and  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Roger's  mother  and  father.  The  Bluchers  were  to  have 
been  there,  but  old  Prince  Blucher  chose  this  morning 
to  drop  dead  off  his  horse.  He  must  have  been  a  charm- 
ing old  man.  Most  of  his  life  he  spent  trying  to  evade 
his  German  taxes.  He  had  an  island  off  the  coast  of 
England,  on  which  he  kept  a  great  many  kangaroos. 
Perhaps  he  thought  they  added  a  touch  of  British 
atmosphere  to  his  estate.  He  wished  to  know  if  he 
couldn't  come  to  America  and  live  there  about  a  week, 
in  order  to  become  an  American  citizen,  as  he  found 
his  island  didn't  get  him  out  of  paying  his  German 
taxes,  but  when  told  it  would  take  even  longer  than  a 
week  to  become  an  American  citizen,  he  gave  up  that 
idea.  He  was  much  interested  in  America  but  said 
he  thought  it  must  be  dangerous  to  have  so  many 
buffaloes  around.  And,  when  he  heard  of  the  lynch- 
ings  our  peace-loving  citizens  occasionally  like  to  in- 


108  Aji   Uncensored  Diary 

dulge  in,  he  suggested  we  let  our  wild  Indians  out  to 
subdue  the  lynchers.  "That  would  soon  put  a  stop 
to  such  riots,"  said  the  old  gentleman. 

July  17  th. 

We  have  seen,  in  a  French  and  a  German  paper, 
rumours  of  the  purchase  of  the  Danish  West  Indies 
by  the  United  States.  I  am  very  much  interested  to 
know  if  Billy's  account  of  transactions  up  to  date  got 

home.     He  had   it  straight  from .     Billy 

asked  Ballin,  when  he  saw  him,  if  he  had  had  any- 
thing to  do  with  stopping  the  sale  before,  as  was  be- 
lieved by  T.  R.  and  Secretary  Hay.  Ballin  said: 
"No,"  and  that  his  belief  was,  that  the  wife  of  Prince 
Waldemar  stopped  it,  being  a  loyal  Danish  woman 
and  not  wishing  her  country  to  lose  any  more  of  its 

territory. 

July  17th, 

Billy  saw  Rathenau,  the  most  brilliant  of  Germany's 
industrial  kings.  He  talked  so  frankly  that  I  hesitate 
to  write  down  his  name.  Billy  first  asked  him  when 
he  thought  the  war  would  end. 

"At  the  earliest,  in  1918,"  said  Rathenau.  "It 
might  just  as  well  end  now,  for  Germany  is  ready 
now  to  make  peace  on  the  same  terms  that  she  will  in 


An  Uncensored  Diary  109 

1918,  but  I  think  the  English  will  have  to  become  far 
more  weary  of  the  war  than  they  are  now  before  they 
will  be  ready  to  talk  sensibly." 

Billy  wanted  to  know  what  he  believed  the  terms  of 
peace  would  be. 

*'In  the  end,"  Rathenau  answered,  "I  think  peace 
will  be  made  on  these  terms :  Germany  will  not  keep 
an  inch  of  French  or  Belgian  soil.  Talk  of  our  keep- 
ing the  Meuse  forts  and  the  crests  of  the  Vosges 
Mountains  is  nonsense.  We  shall  pay  Belgium  an 
indemnity  of  say  two  billion  marks.  We  shall  not 
call  it  an  indemnity  but  we  shall  tie  it  up  in  the  pur- 
chase price  which  we  shall  pay  for  a  strip  of  Belgian 
Congo  to  connect  our  colonies  in  East  and  West  Africa. 
The  purchase  price  will  be  very  much  more  than  the 
land  is  worth.  We  shall  not  keep  Kurland.  The 
present  agitation  for  its  retention  is  sentimental 
idiocy.  There  are  only  200,000  Germans  there,  the 
rest  of  the  population  is  Lithuanian  and  Esth. 

"We  shall  not  attempt  to  keep  Poland,  or  to  bring 
her  into  the  German  Zollverein.  It  will  be  better, 
both  for  Austria  and  ourselves,  if  Poland  remains 
under  Russian  control,  for  the  Poles  are  the  most  un- 
reliable people  in  Europe  and  they  will  always  work 
against  the  power  to  which  they  are  allied.     If  Russia 


110  An  Uncensored  Diary 

keeps  tliem,  she  will  continue  to  have  a  difficult  people 
on  her  hands,  and  Poland  will  turn  to  Austria  and  our- 
selves for  support. 

"The  question  of  Serbia  is  harder.  Bulgaria  will 
probably  keep  the  part  of  Macedonia  which  she 
wants,  and  Austria  will  take  some  Serbian  territory. 
Serbia  will  be  compensated  by  the  acquisition  of 
Montenegro  and  an  outlet  to  the  sea  in  Albania. 

"  One  condition  of  the  peace  will  have  to  be  a  return 
to  the  status  quo  before  the  war  in  an  economic  way. 
That  is,  the  plans  of  the  Paris  Conference  for  an 
economic  war  must  be  abandoned." 

Billy  suggested  that  it  might  be  possible  for  the 
United  States,  England,  and  Germany  to  make  an 
alhance  on  the  basis  that  Germany  must  limit  her 
fleet  and  leave  England  the  supremacy  of  the  sea. 
England  must  promise  not  to  blockade  Germany 
again.  The  United  States  is  to  guarantee  the  keeping 
of  both  agreements,  in  return  getting  the  ratification 
of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  by  England  and  Germany. 
The  United  States  will  guarantee  the  pledge  of  Eng- 
land by  agreeing  to  put  an  embargo  on  exports  to  Eng- 
land if  England  breaks  her  promise.  In  the  event  of 
aggression  on  the  part  of  Germany,  the  United  States 
would  come  in  on  the  side  of  England,  or  vice  versa. 


An  Uncensored  Diary  111 

"That  is  perfectly  possible,"  said  Rathenau. 
"That  is  the  peace  Germany  is  ready  to  make  to-day. 
England  probably  will  not  be  ready  for  it  until  1918. 
The  great  danger  is  that  peace  will  be  put  off  many 
years  longer,  perhaps  till  1920.  This  danger  springs 
from  the  even  chance  that  Germany  will  recommence 
the  U-boat  war.  I  consider  that  absolutely  unneces- 
sary. Moreover,  it  would  make  the  war  a  horrible 
thing.  It  is  already  the  most  absurd,  mad  thing  that 
has  ever  happened  in  the  world.  A  recommence- 
ment of  this  U-boat  war  would  bring  in  Rumania,  the 
United  States,  Holland,  Denmark,  and  Norway.  It 
would  make  us  the  most  hated  people  on  earth  and 
would  prolong  the  war  indefinitely. 

"There  is  an  even  chance  the  Tirpitz  party  will 
win  out.  The  situation  is  this.  Falkenhayn  said  to 
the  Kaiser  that  he  could  crush  the  Russians,  French, 
and  English.  Now  the  Kaiser  sees  that  the  battles 
on  both  fronts  sweep  first  this  way,  then  that  w^ay. 
Falkenhayn  explains:  "I  would  do  it  if  the  fleet  gave 
me  proper  support." 

"Tirpitz  said  his  fleet  was  to  crush  England.  It 
has  not,  and  his  answer  is  that  he  is  forbidden  his 
most  effective  weapon,  the  submarine. 

"The  people  then  ask:  'Why  must  we  go  on  having 


112  All  Uncensored  Diary 

less  to  eat  and  sacrificing  our  children?'  and  the  Con- 
servatives answer  them,  that  the  Kaiser  and  Beth- 
mann-Hollweg  are  too  weak  to  use  our  greatest 
weapon,  the  U-boat. 

"With  the  opening  of  the  Reichstag  in  the  autumn, 
the  fight  will  begin  again.  I  do  not  think  the  Con- 
servatives will  win  then,  but  early  in  the  spring,  after 
the  people  have  suffered  another  winter,  I  fear 
that  the  submarine  war  party  will  be  the  stronger 
and  the  submarine  war  start  again  in  the  spring  of 
1917.  The  Chancellor  will  then  resign,  and  perhaps 
Tirpitz,  Falkenhayn,  or  Mackensen  will  take  his 
place. 

"The  Emperor  is  on  the  fence.  He  favours  first 
one  party,  then  the  other.  The  naval  party  will  be 
strong  next  spring.  We  are  finishing  from  four  to 
five  submarines  a  week,  I  know,  as  I  make  half  the 
engines.  They  will  then  think  the  blockade  may  be 
made  successful." 

Billy  asked  if  there  was  a  chance  of  Austria  coming 
into  a  Zollverein.  Rathenau  said  there  was  a 
splendid  chance,  a  short  while  ago,  but  the  matter 
was  so  bungled  that  they  do  not  expect  it  now  for 
twenty  years. 

Rathenau   organized   German   industry  for  war. 


An  Uncensored  Diary  113 

The  one  thing  the  German  General  Staff  had  neg- 
lected to  do  was  to  prepare  Germany  against  such 
a  blockade  as  the  English  are  maintaining.  Rathenau 
came  to  Von  Falkenhayn  three  days  after  war  was 
declared,  with  plans  for  an  Industrial  General 
Staff  and  for  the  conservation  of  raw  materials. 
Falkenhayn  immediately  put  the  whole  matter 
into  Rathenau's  hands. 

Rathenau  then  demanded  of  the  statistical  bureau 
that  they  find  out  what  raw  materials  were  in  the 
country.  The  bureau  answered  that  it  would  take 
six  months.  Rathenau  replied  that  they  must 
furnish  the  information  in  half  as  many  weeks. 
They  did!  This  accomplished,  the  order  was  issued 
that  manufacturers  might  use  certain  raw  materials 
only  for  the  production  of  articles  to  be  used  by 
the  army.  This  obliged  many  manufacturers  to 
cease  turning  out  w^hat  they  were  in  the  habit  of 
making,  and  to  make  quite  a  different  thing.  Thus 
the  largest  piano  factory  in  Germany  immediately 
took  to  making  shells,  and  countless  other  fac- 
tories were  forced  to  institute  quite  as  radical  a 
change. 

The  last  thing  he  said  was,  that  Prince  Bulow  had 
no  chance  of  again  becoming  Prime  Minister. 


114  An  Uncensored  Diary 

July  18  th, 

The  rains  continue.  In  some  sections  of  the 
country  the  peasants  are  paddling  around  their  po- 
tato fields  in  boats,  trying  to  save  a  portion  of  their 
crops.  Our  maid  said  yesterday,  in  tones  of  utter 
despair,  that  if  the  war  went  on  much  longer,  there 
would  be  no  men  left,  and  if  the  rain  continued,  there 
would  be  no  food  left.  Her  brother,  who  is  a  farmer, 
said  one  more  week  of  rain  and  things  would  be  very 
bad. 

Yesterday,  when  I  was  coming  home,  my  tram  was 
halted  by  a  marching  regiment.  The  band  at  its 
head  was  playing,  each  soldier  wore  a  bunch  of 
flowers  in  his  belt,  and  by  this  token  one  knew  they 
were  bound  for  the  front.  Mixed  in  the  ranks,  and 
walking  by  the  soldiers'  sides,  were  many  others. 
Young  girls  marching  to  the  station  with  their 
brothers,  sweethearts,  or  husbands;  old  men  and 
women  trudging  by  their  sons  until  the  last  moment; 
little  children  holding  their  fathers'  free  hands,  and 
wishing  they  might  be  big  enough  to  carry  the  gun  on 
his  other  shoulder.  Four  of  the  women  in  my  tram 
began  to  sob.  The  men  going  out  were  not  their  men, 
or  the  women  would  have  been  there  in  the  crowd 


An  Uncensored  Diary  115 

walking  with  them,  but  each  of  the  women  wore 
black.  The  men  were  not  even  of  my  people,  but  the 
hideous,  tragic  foolishness  of  the  thing  this  swinging 
column  symbolized,  and  the  sorrow  of  the  weeping 
women  near  me,  brought  the  hot  tears  smarting  to 
my  eyes. 

Mrs.  Gerard  told  me  yesterday,  when  I  was  there 
at  tea,  that  one  woman  whom  she  knew  had  lost  her 
five  sons,  and  then,  poor  soul,  died  of  a  broken  heart. 
It  seems  to  me  the  German  people  are  about  ready  to 
stop  the  war. 

Lunched  at  Hillers  with  Herr  Horstmann,  the 
Duchesse  d'Aremberg,  and  Count  Pejacsevich.  I  be- 
lieve the  d'Arembergs  date  their  family  from  before 
Adam,  some  time.  The  Duchesse  d' Aremberg  was  7iSe 
Princess  de  Ligne  and  one  would  suppose,  from  the 
combination,  she  would  be  rather  anti-German  in  her 
sentiments.  The  Due  d'Aremberg,  when  the  war 
broke  out,  held  a  commission  in  the  German  army, 
as  his  family  is  so  international.  Much  to  the  dis- 
gust of  the  Belgians,  who  consider  him  a  prince  of 
their  soil,  d'Aremberg  kept  his  commission,  and 
marched  with  the  invading  army  into  his  own  country. 
Even  the  Germans  thought  he  would  ask  for  a  post  on 
the  General  Staff  and,  in  this  way,  have  an  excuse  not 


116  An  Uncensored  Diary 

actually  to  go  to  war.  The  Palais  d'Aremberg,  in 
Brussels,  is  now  housing  200  wounded  soldiers,  whom 
the  Duchesse  told  me  to  go  and  see.  The  Duke 
does  not  dare  to  show  himself  in  Belgium,  while  the 
Duchesse  only  attempted  to  go  back  to  her  palace 
after  a  year  and  a  half.  All  their  superb  art  treasures 
they  have  taken  from  Brussels  to  their  castle  in 
Westphalia,  so  I  shall,  unfortunately,  not  see  them. 
My  lady  herself  is  now  dhin  certain  age,  with  dyed 
yellow^  hair  and  painted  eyelashes.  Her  pearls  are 
beautiful,  her  rings  extraordinary,  and  she  wore  a 
light  blue  silk  hat  with  velvet  streamers.  I  arrived 
at  the  restaurant  first.  Then  the  men  cried:  "Here 
comes  the  Duchess!"  and  this  vision  appeared.  Her 
voice,  like  that  of  all  French  women,  was  a  delight, 
but  she  has  not  the  fascination  of  some  of  her  coun- 
trywomen. 

She  gave  me  the  address  of  some  dressmakers,  and 
a  place  where  one  may  buy  very  delirious  lingerie. 
The  sample  she  showed  me  was  a  piece  of  Brussels 
point  lace  with  a  square  of  linen  in  the  middle  about  a 
square  inch  in  size.  She  called  it  a  handkerchief  and 
advised  my  buying  some.  I  said  the  ones  I  used 
usually  cost  12|  cents  and  had  my  name  written  on 
them  in  ink — so  she  hates  me. 


n 

BELGIUM 

Brussels,  July  21st. 

Leaving  Berlin  on  a  night  train  is  a  hopeless  nui- 
sance in  war  time.  There  are  almost  no  cabs,  so  one 
must  order  one  hours  ahead  and,  if  it  comes,  as  ours 
did,  one  must  go  and  sit  an  eternity  in  the  railroad 
station.  There  we  met  Excellenz  Coates  waiting,  as 
he  was  destined  to  do  for  the  next  week,  for  the  Bul- 
litts  to  arrive.  On  Billy's  attempting  to  tip  the 
porter,  Excellenz  interrupted :  "  Excuse  me,"  said  he. 
"You  are  now  the  guests  of  the  German  Govern- 
ment," and  the  porter  received  a  portion  of  his  own 
good  tax  money  back  from  the  hands  of  its  collector. 
I  must  say  our  surprise  was  great;  we  had  not  ex- 
pected this.  When  one  travels  as  the  guest  of  the 
government,  things  are  luxurious  and  easy.  One  goes 
first  class  and  one  is  treated  with  marked  respect,  par- 
ticularly if  one  has  an  Excellenz  in  uniform  along; 
soldiers,  who  are  everywhere,  form  into  stiff  lines  of 
salute,  and  smile  instead  of  scowl.     I  shall  never  cease 

117 


118  An  Uncensored  Diary 

to  be  amused  at  the  way  in  which  a  man  is  trans- 
formed upon  the  approach  of  an  officer  into  a  rigid, 
staring  object,  ferocious  of  eye  and  terrifying  of  as- 
pect. I  do  not  remember  having  seen  American 
soldiers  sakite,  but  I  am  sure  they  are  temperment- 
ally  incapable  of  any  such  performance  as  the  Ger- 
man soldier  automatically  undertakes  on  the  average 
of  thirty  times  a  minute. 

After  a  night's  journey,  we  got  to  Cologne.  The 
station  was  swarming  with  men  in  feldgrau.  Most  of 
the  uniforms  were  dirty  and  worn,  and  the  men's 
boots  were  muddy  up  to  their  knees.  They  were  eat- 
ing at  tables  on  the  platforms,  or  squatting  on  the  floor 
by  their  kit;  companies  were  getting  into  trains,  or 
standing  about  the  waiting  rooms.  They  looked 
healthy  and  sunburned.  WTiere  they  had  come  from, 
and  where  they  were  going,  one  did  not  know,  for  the 
German  army  moves  secretly  and  ceaselessly. 

We  saw  the  cathedral  during  our  hour's  wait. 
Soldiers  were  here,  too,  on  their  knees  before  some 
favourite  saint,  or  stalking  about  with  heads  in  the  air 
looking  at  the  great  columns  springing  toward  the 
roof.  A  severe  gentleman  in  a  red  robe  told  us  to 
sit  down,  and  it  delighted  my  soul  to  walk  about  with 
Coates  and  not  do  it.    I  have  become  so  cowed  during 


An  Uncensored  Diary  119 

my  six  weeks  in  Berlin  that,  if  a  German  ragamuffin 
ordered  me  to  move  on,  I  should  undoubtedly  do  it 
immediately. 

Shortly  after  leaving  Cologne,  we  got  into  Belgian 
territory.  From  the  border  to  close  upon  Lou  vain 
one  could  not  tell  from  the  train  that  Belgium  had 
ever  been  invaded,  were  it  not  for  the  German  sen- 
tries by  the  railroad  track,  and  the  soldiers  in  the  rail- 
road stations.  The  country  is  covered  with  grain 
fields  and  vegetable  gardens,  all  under  strenuous  cul- 
tivation. Many  cattle  are  grazing  and  the  villages 
look  quite  as  in  normal  times.  On  approaching 
Louvain,  one  begins  to  see  destroyed  villages,  burned 
chateaux,  and  half-demolished  factories.  Brussels  it- 
self, which  we  reached  at  three  in  the  afternoon,  is  not 
touched,  as  it  was  surrendered  peacefully.  Soldiers 
of  the  moth-eaten  Landsturm  class  spread  themselves 
pretty  successfully  over  the  city,  beginning  with  the 
entrance  to  the  railroad  station.  Before  one  enters  a 
train,  a  soldier  examines  one's  passport,  and  then  an- 
other takes  the  tickets.  Before  one  leaves  the  sta- 
tion, passports  must  be  shown  again.  There  is  an 
exit  from  the  stations  for  ^'Militdr  personen"  which 
we  may  go  through  when  with  Coates.  I  had  be- 
come so  courageous  by  the  time  we  reached  Brussels, 


120  An  Uncensored  Diary 

that  I  suggested  our  choosing  the  exit  marked:  *'Kein 
AusganQy^  as  the  fever  to  break  rules  was  strong  upon 
me,  having  been  six  weeks  in  Germany.  This  could 
not  be  managed,  however. 

At  the  Hotel  Astoria  we  were  given  a  bedroom, 
sitting-room,  and  bath,  accompanied  by  a  Belgian 
valet,  who  showed  signs  of  joy  when  he  learned  we 
were  Americans.  He  confided  to  me  that  his  httle 
girl  had  been  lost  since  the  beginning  of  the  war,  and 
that  he  had  spent  all  the  money  which  he  had  saved  up 
for  his  old  age  in  travelling  around  trying  to  find  her. 

"And  after  the  w^ar,"  he  continued,  sadly,  "I 
shall  have  no  money  left  to  go  to  France  and  hunt 
for  her  there." 

The  Belgians  are  now  perfectly  well  behaved  under 
German  rule.  Any  sign  of  disrespect  is  fined  heavily. 
Belgian  policemen  salute  German  oflBcers,  Belgian 
storekeepers  and  restaurants  have  Germans  as 
constant  customers,  but  all  social  communication  is 
entirely  cut  off;  the  line  is  drawn  here  absolutely 
and  finally. 

Americans  are  very  popular.  One  has  only  to 
say,  on  entering  a  shop,  that  one  comes  from  the 
U.  S.  A.,  and  smiles  greet  one  from  behind  counters 
like  a  sunrise.    If  we  are  with  a  German  officer. 


An  U licensor ed  Diary  121 

their  attitude  is  quite  different,  polite,  unsmiling, 
and  cold,  although  the  German  officers  treat  them 
with  perfect  courtesy.  Billy  went  into  a  little  shop 
to  buy  chocolate  the  day  we  arrived.  The  Major 
and  I  stayed  outside  and  looked  in  the  window. 
The  proprietress  scowled,  and  handed  over  a  cake 
of  suchard.  Suddenly  her  face  was  transformed. 
Billy  had  told  her  he  was  an  American. 

"O/i,  les  Americains  /"  she  cried,  "we  are  so  grate- 
ful for  everything  that  you  have  done  for  us!" 

We  went  the  afternoon  of  our  arrival  in  Brussels  to 
the  press  office,  where  we  met  Count  Harrach  and 
Baron  Falkenhousen.  Harrach  is  in  charge  of  the 
press  in  Belgium.  He  is  a  man  of  the  type  it  would 
be  well  to  have  many  of  in  any  country.  We  both 
like  him  immensely.  By  vocation,  he  is  a  sculptor, 
but  he  seems  to  have  switched  from  marble  busts  to 
newspaper  editing  and  press  censoring  with  little 
trouble. 

We  dined  at  the  Epaule  de  Mouton:  Coates, 
Harrach,  Billy,  and  I.  Harrach  told  us  of  the 
entrance  of  the  German  army  into  Malines. 

"I  came  in  ahead  in  a  military  automobile,"  he 
said.  "The  town  was  deserted,  and  silent.  Every 
citizen  had  fled.    It  was  like  some  city  in  a  fairy 


122  An  Uncensored  Diary 

tale.  Shops  open,  wares  displayed,  homes  looking 
quite  normal,  but  not  a  soul  anywhere.  The  silence 
was  startling  in  its  intensity.  I  drove  straight  to  the 
church,  where  I  knew  there  were  two  Rubens  pic- 
tures. These  I  wished  to  take  to  some  safe  place, 
but  they  were  gone;  the  Belgians  had  taken  them  out 
of  their  frames  and  hidden  them  or  taken  them  with 
them  in  the  flight. 

"In  a  bookshop  I  entered  was  a  row  of  red  morocco 
volumes,  which  I  wished  very  much  to  take  as 
souvenirs,  but  I  did  not,  as  I  thought  the  example 
would  be  bad  for  my  troops,  who  were  forbidden  to 
take  a  thing  under  the  threat  of  a  heavy  punishment. 

"Malines  was  between  the  Belgian  and  German 
firing  lines,  so  few  shells  fell  on  the  town.  We  could 
hear  them  go  whistling  overhead  with  a  long,  sharp 
scream;  shrapnel  alone  burst  in  white  puffs  above  our 
heads  and  fell  like  hailstones  in  the  streets.  By 
keeping  close  to  the  walls,  one  was  out  of  danger. 
But  what  I  shall  always  carry  vividly  in  mind  was 
the  fact  that  my  chauffeur  and  I  were  the  only  souls 
in  the  large  town  of  Malines  until  my  troops  came 
in  a  short  while  after." 

Since  Harrach  described  the  city,  we  have  been  there 
ourselves.     Now  the  people  have  come  back  and  life 


An  Uncensored  Diary  123 

seems  quite  normal.  There  is  very  little  destruction. 
An  odd  shell  fell  here  and  there  and  blew  up  the 
house  in  that  spot.  Across  the  Place  from  the 
cathedral,  most  of  the  destruction  took  place.  Here, 
half  a  block  is  knocked  to  pieces.  The  windows  of 
the  cathedral  are  nearly  all  shattered  as  a  result  of 
the  vibration.  Some  few  shells  came  through  the 
roof,  or  the  walls,  and  the  holes  have  since  been  filled 
up  with  brickwork.  The  main  part  of  the  building 
is  not  greatly  damaged.  It  looks,  however,  a  good 
deal  pounded  up,  and  artificially  antiquated. 

We  wished  very  much  to  see  Cardinal  Mercier, 
Archbishop  of  Malines,  but  were  not  allowed  by  the 
Major.  Naturally,  it  would  be  rather  contrary  to 
German  interests  to  have  one  of  the  most  famous 
of  Belgian  patriots  give  us  a  few  of  his  views  on 
German  occupation,  so  we  understood  perfectly 
their  not  wishing  us  to  talk  to  him.  The  Germans 
told  us  quite  frankly  that  they  had  not  brought  us 
here  to  talk  to  Belgians. 

We  dined,  the  evening  of  our  trip  to  Malines,  with 
Harrach,  Falkenhousen,  Doctor  Rieth,  Count  and 
Countess  Mengerson,  Baron  von  Lancken,  and 
several  other  men  in  the  house  now  occupied  by  these 
men  of  the  "press." 


124  An  Uncensored  Diary 

We  were  given  a  most  excellent  dinner  and 
enjoyed  ourselves  immensely.  The  food  in  Belgium 
is  still  good  and  apparently  plentiful.  It  seems  like 
a  land  of  luxury  and  ease  compared  with  Germany. 

I  asked  Count  Mengerson  to  whom  the  house  be- 
longed, and  he  told  me  to  a  Belgian  who  detested 
the  Germans  immeasurably. 

"We  have  made  an  inventory,"  said  Von  Lancken, 
"of  everything  in  the  house  and  shall  replace  any- 
thing which  we  break." 

The  next  day  a  government  motor  called  for  us 
to  take  us  on  a  tour  of  Brussels,  under  the  guidance 
of  the  agreeable  young  man  named  Rieth,  who  had 
been  at  dinner  the  night  before. 

First,  taking  up  what  the  Germans  are  doing 
for  Belgium  in  the  way  of  relieving  the  industrial 
situation,  ,  they  showed  us  the  Spitzen  Centrale, 
or  the  central  bureau  for  lace.  The  lace  industry, 
in  which  fifty  thousand  Belgian  women  had  been 
employed,  was  almost  completely  paralyzed  by  the 
outbreak  of  the  war,  all  exports  being  stopped. 
Governor  von  Bissing  is  sincerely  anxious  that  the 
Belgians  be  enabled  to  gain  a  livelihood  and  so,  under 
the  encouragement  of  the  government,  10,000 
women  have  again  taken  up  the  work.     At  first,  they 


An  Uncensored  Diary  125 

were  so  suspicious  they  would  not  be  employed  by  the 
Germans,  nor  would  they  trust  them  to  sell  their  lace. 
Their  wages  now  amount  to  two  marks  fifty  a  day, 
slightly  more  than  they  earned  at  lace  making  before 
the  war.  There  is  also  a  blouse  shop,  which  the 
Germans  conduct.  The  work  from  the  lace  Cen- 
trale  and  from  the  blouse  workshops  is  sold 
almost  exclusively  to  Germans,  as  it  is  run  by 
Germans. 

Then  there  are  several  cigar  factories  conducted 
by  the  government,  and  a  large  sack  factory.  This 
factory  is  a  special  pet  of  Von  Bissing's.  In  the  sack 
factory,  400  women  are  employed.  They  make  mail 
sacks,  and  sand  bags  for  the  German  army,  400,000  in 
all  every  day.  Social  insurance  is  carried  on  accord- 
ing to  the  German  plans,  and  a  day  nursery  is  near  by 
for  the  children  of  the  workers — admirably  run,  as  are 
all  such  German  institutions.  As  we  were  watching 
the  babies  being  fed  by  the  nurses  in  charge,  one  of 
our  oflScer  guides  said : 

"Yes,  these  are  the  German  barbarians  who  eat 
little  children." 

They  refer  very  often,  in  a  laughing  way,  to  the 
reputation  they  have  abroad,  and  in  America. 
They  laugh,  but  still  I  think  it  rankles  a  little. 


126  An  U licensor ed  Diary 

The  cigar  factories  are  three  in  number,  the  prod- 
ucts also  going  to  the  German  army. 

The  Germans  continue  their  benevolences  in  the 
shape  of  an  industrial  exhibition.  A  Frau  von  Huen, 
who  had  come  from  Germany  to  help  run  the  thing, 
said  to  us,  with  amazing  frankness: 

"Yes;  you  know  the  Belgians  were  underbidding 
us  in  the  markets  of  the  world  because  they  produce 
so  cheaply.  Their  wages  are  low,  and  they  spend  far 
less  than  we  in  protective  measures  for  the  employees. 
Also  their  social  insurance  expenses  are  far  below  ours, 
as  they  only  have  accident  insurance.  We  hope,  by 
showing  the  Belgians  the  safety  devices  we  use  on 
machines,  our  model  villages  for  employees  in  big 
factories,  by  explaining  our  system  of  insurance, 
with  our  many  sanatoria  and  hospitals,  that  the 
Belgians  w^ill  also  demand  them,  and  so  raise  the 
price  of  production  in  their  country." 

The  German  Red  Cross  does  not  do  very  extensive 
work  in  Belgium  for  the  Belgians.  It  does  help 
some  in  giving  employment  to  women,  sock  knitting, 
and  the  making  of  some  other  simple  things  for  the 
German  army,  and  also  the  encouragement  of  the 
lace  industry.  One  notices  that,  with  the  exception 
of  the  lace  making,  the  other  products  of  Belgian 


An  Uncensored  Diary  127 

labour,  paid  by  Germany,  go  to  the  German  army. 
There  are,  however,  no  Belgians  making  munitions, 
or  cannon,  or  firearms,  for  their  conquerors. 

Most  of  the  industry  in  the  country  is  paralyzed 
and  there  are  thousands  out  of  work. 

July  2J^ih. 

To  describe  thoroughly  the  relief  work  which  the 
Belgians  are  doing  for  themselves,  through  the 
National  Committee  and  through  the  American  Com- 
mittee for  Relief  in  Belgium  (the  C.  R.  B.)  would  take 
a  month ;  one  would  have  to  write  a  book  on  the  sub- 
ject and  repeat  what  has  been  told  many  times  of  the 
splendid  and  thorough  work  of  ravitaillement  done 
through  our  American  organization.  The  C.R.B. 
takes  care  of  the  food  question  in  such  a  way  that 
literally  everyone  in  Belgium  may  eat,  if  not  all  he 
wants,  at  least  enough  to  keep  him  from  starving. 
That  is  their  great  work.  The  importation  of  food 
and  its  fate  hang  continually  in  the  balance.  England, 
in  spite  of  all  proofs  and  pledges  to  the  contrary, 
is  ever  in  an  uneasy  state  of  suspicion  for  fear  some 
of  the  food  maj^  go  to  Germany  or  the  German  army. 
General  von  Bissing  has  pledged  himself  to  see  that 
the  army  of  occupation  is  fed  from  his  own  country. 


128  An  Uncensored  Diary 

and  also  that  no  food  imported  by  the  C.  R.  B.  goes 
over  the  border.  This  order  is  carried  out  in  the 
incomparable  manner  of  all  German  orders.  Still 
the  English  continue  to  watch  the  operations  of  the 
C.  R.  B.  and  send  in  complaints  with  a  regularity 
that  bores  the  Committee  not  a  little. 

With  the  Germans,  they  also  have  their  troubles. 
The  C.  R.  B.  wished  cattle  for  northern  France, 
which  is  devoid  of  all  animal  food.  The  cattle 
were  bought  and  paid  for  in  Holland.  As  they  were 
about  to  come  over  the  border,  the  German  Govern- 
ment forbade  it,  saying:  "Any  extra  cattle  Holland 
has  to  sell  come  to  us." 

Most  of  the  food  the  C.  R.  B.  imports  is  sold,  the 
profit  going  to  more  relief  work.  Their  cry  for 
funds  is  continual.  I  was  amazed  at  the  small 
proportion  of  money  which  has  been  given  by 
Americans.  The  Belgians  themselves  give  the  most, 
the  English  give  a  considerable  amount,  and  from 
France  each  month  a  mysterious  check  comes  for 
4,000,000  francs.  There  are  only  forty-five  Ameri- 
cans working  in  Belgium  for  the  C.  R.  B.,  and  25,000 
Belgians  on  the  National  Committee. 

Mr.  Hoover,  the  head  of  the  C.  R.  B.,  is  considered 
by  Belgium,  and  by  the  Committee,  the  greatest 


An  Uncensored  Diary  129 

American  alive  to-day,  and  they  fully  expect  him  to 
go  home  and  move  to  the  White  House  when  the 
war  is  over.  The  Germans  also  think  him  a  man 
worthy  of  the  highest  praise,  and  cannot  believe  that 
he  did  not  hold  some  distinguished  post  in  his  own 
country  before  coming  to  the  aid  of  another  country 
which,  but  for  his  genius  for  organization,  his  tact, 
and  his  perseverance,  would  have  starved  and  been 
without  clothes. 

The  C.  R.  B.  is  in  close  cooperation  with  the  Bel- 
gian National  Committee.  Everything  the  C.  R.  B. 
doesn't  do,  which  is  quite  considerable,  the  National 
Committee  attends  to — pensions  for  all  those  out  of 
work;  soup  kitchens,  where  a  great  bowl  of  nourishing 
soup  is  sold  for  almost  nothing;  the  care  of  women 
for  three  months  before  a  baby  is  born,  and  nine 
months  after;  and  food  stations  for  debilitated 
children  from  the  ages  of  a  week  to  seventeen  years. 
The  children  are  examined  once  a  week  by  a  doctor 
and  the  proper  food  prescribed  for  them.  The  food 
they  get  free.  In  Brussels,  22,000  children  eat  daily 
in  the  "Petites  Abeilles,"  as  they  are  called.  As  a 
result  of  the  care  given  babies,  infant  mortality  has 
fallen  to  9.4  per  1,000 — lower  than  it  has  ever  been. 
(As  Billy  remarked,  a  Belgian  baby  has  a  better 


130  All  Uncensored  Diary 

chance  of  living  than  a  child  born  in  Philadelphia.) 
But  the  birth  rate  is  everywhere  lower  than  the  death 
rate. 

There  is  an  increase  in  the  number  of  tubercular 
children,  and  children  with  rickets,  in  spite  of  the 
work  of  the  Comite  de  Secours.  Fat  is  the  scarcest 
article  of  food  and  tells  immediately  upon  the  health 
of  the  children.  Helping  to  clothe  the  people  is  an- 
other branch  of  the  Comite  de  Secours, 

Jidy  25th. 

Went  to  Antwerp.  We  were  met  by  an  officer  and 
a  military  motor,  both  of  which  were  at  our  disposal 
for  the  day.  The  machine  had  tires  and  was  not  one 
of  the  consumptive  kind  to  which  civilians  are  con- 
demned in  Germany,  neither  did  it  have  one  of  those 
insulting  whistles  that  made  the  car,  in  which  we 
drove  around  Brussels,  a  nightmare  to  those  who 
ventured  in  its  speed-limitless  path. 

Antwerp  is  practically  intact.  One  bomb,  dropped 
from  a  Zeppelin,  blew  up  fifty  houses.  It  was  in- 
tended for  the  Government  building,  and  struck  only 
across  a  rather  narrow  street.  The  Zeppelin  aim  is 
rather  better  than  one  would  wish  for  comfort.  Per- 
haps a  hundred  more  houses  were  destroyed  at  this 


An  Uncensored  Diary  131 

visit.  The  fighting  went  on  around  the  forts,  some 
miles  from  the  city.  The  great  weakness  of  all  Bel- 
gian fortifications  lay  in  their  nearness  to  the  cities 
they  protected.  Forts  to-day  must  be  ten  miles  from 
the  town,  and  the  Belgian  forts  were  six  miles  or 
closer — some  right  on  the  cities  themselves. 

In  Antwerp,  one  splinter  of  a  shell  came  through 
the  cathedral  window  and  struck  the  centre  of  the 
frame  where  Rubens'  "Descent  from  the  Cross"  had 
hung.  By  good  fortune,  the  Belgians  had  taken  the 
picture  away  at  the  beginning  of  the  siege. 

As  for  the  city  itself,  it  is  marvellously  quiet.  The 
erstwhile  busiest  docks  in  Europe  lie  as  still  as  the  castle 
of  Sleeping  Beauty.  The  store-sheds  are  empty  ,'except 
for  a  few  which  coatain  lumber  owned  by  neutrals; 
the  huge  granaries  are  locked  and  deserted ;  the  ships 
lie  at  anchor  and  grow  crops  of  barnacles  on  their  bot- 
toms. On  one  pier  are  800  dead  motor  cars,  smashed 
by  the  people  of  Antwerp  before  the  city  surrendered. 
Grass  has  grown  up  in  the  dockyards  and  between  the 
cobblestones  on  the  roads  about  the  wharves.  Even 
the  German  guards  stood  stiff  as  corpses,  in  rigid 
salute,  as  we  passed.  The  canal  boats  of  the  Ameri- 
can Relief  happened  that  day  to  be  lying  as  stagnant 
as  the  rest.     In  toto,  the  effect  was  not  enlivening. 


132  An  Uncensored  Diary 

This  paralysis  of  commerce  in  Antwerp  means  great 
financial  loss  to  Germany,  as  well  as  to  Belgium. 
Most  of  the  great  fortunes  of  Antwerp  are  indeed 
German.  It  is  ridiculous  for  the  Belgians  to  speak  of 
refusing  to  let  Germany  ship  through  Antwerp  after 
the  war,  as  the  city  hves  on  German  shipping. 

July  31st. 

Louvain  we  saw  from  a  joggly  dog-cart,  in  com- 
pany with  the  ever-present  Coates  and  General 
Lowenfeld,  ex-Military  Governor  of  Berlin  and  aide- 
de-camp  to  the  Kaiser.  Coates,  owing  to  our  frenzied 
expeditions  about  Belgium,  had  added  fifteen  years  to 
his  sixty-two  in  the  last  few  days.  The  unfortunate 
man  had  orders  to  accompany  us  everywhere,  and  the 
pursuit  of  his  duty  nearly  killed  him.  I  felt  exactly 
as  if  I  were  back  in  Paris  at  school,  and  Billy  chafed  at 
the  surveillance,  but  we  were  both  amused. 

Louvain  is  decidedly  pounded  up,  but  it  is  not  hor- 
rible. Two  years  have  made  a  difference  in  the  dis- 
orderly work  of  the  German  cannon  and  incendiary 
department  of  their  army.  Only  one  fifth  of  the 
city  was  destroyed,  but  that  fifth  happened  to  con- 
tain most  of  the  University,  and  the  residential  sec- 
tion where  lived  Louvain's  best.     The  City  Hall,  of 


An  Uncensored  Diary  133 

extreme  Gothic  ornateness,  stands  untouched  amid 
the  ruins  of  the  Library  and  surrounding  buildings. 
The  Cathedral  lacks  tower,  the  famous  chimes,  and 
much  of  the  masonry,  as  well  as  interior  decoration; 
rubbish  lies  in  heaps  on  the  stone  floor,  which  is  itself 
upheaved  in  spots.  The  old  sexton,  who  showed  us 
around,  shook  his  white  head  mournfully. 

Young  Doctor  Rieth  told  us  he  knew  the  officer 
well  who  directed  the  destruction  of  Louvain. 

"He  told  me,"  said  Rieth,  "that  he  had  no  idea 
there  was  a  library  in  the  town ;  that  if  he  had  known, 
he  would  not  have  dreamed  of  burning  it — he  would 
have  saved  it  as  he  saved  the  City  Hall  by  blowing  up 
the  surrounding  houses.  The  citizens  did  not  speak 
to  my  friend  about  the  Library  until  the  building  was 
too  far  gone  to  save." 

I  can  imagine  that  the  citizens  of  Louvain  were, 
through  horror  and  terror,  in  no  condition  to  remind 
the  German  officer  that  he  was  destroying  one  of 
Europe's  choicest  possessions. 

The  German  point  of  view  on  the  destruction  of 
Belgian  property  is:  "If  they  had  not  resisted  our 
men,  we  should  have  harmed  nothing." 

I  repeatedly  said  that  I  thought  it  the  most  natural 
thing  in  the  world  for  civilians  to  shoot  at  them  out  of 


134  An  Uncensored  Diary 

every  window  in  the  town,  and  asked  them  if  they 
would  not,  as  loyal  Germans,  have  done  quite  the 
same  if  another  nation  had  held  a  dress-parade  in 
feldgrau,  with  loaded  cannon  and  machine  guns  in 
their  country. 

All  the  deliberate  damage,  or  frightfulness,  in  Bel- 
gium was  done  in  three  days,  and  the  dates  were 
August  24,  25,  and  26.  The  German  explanation  is 
this:  They  could  not  have  llie  repetition  of  civilian 
warfare  which  they  met  in  France  in  1870.  That  had 
been  much  too  inconvenient  to  the  German  army. 
They  decided,  if  resistance  was  made  by  the  civil 
population  in  the  shape  of  franc-tireurs,  that  the 
punishment  would  be  swift  and  sure.  It  was.  Von 
Bissing  told  Billy  that  the  destruction  of  Louvain 
was  really  a  very  good  thing  for  Brussels,  as  it  taught 
the  residents  what  would  happen  there  if  they  started 
to  annoy  the  German  army !  Not  a  stone  in  the  city 
was  touched,  but  one  woman,  of  whom  the  world  knows 
well,  was.     We  have  not  mentioned  Miss  Cavell. 

During  our  drive  about  Louvain  we  passed  the 
building  which  held  the  stores  of  the  C.  R.  B.  The 
Stars  and  Stripes  flew  from  the  top  window.  I  saw 
the  flag  and  lifted  Billy's  hat  from  his  head,  as  he  was 
occupied  watching  something  in  another  direction. 


An  Uncensored  Diary  135 

"There  is  our  flag,"  I  said  pointedly  to  the  General, 
with  Billy's  hat  in  my  hand.  Whereupon,  the 
Kaiser's  aide-de-camp,  and  Excellenz  Coates,  and  the 
officer  who  was  showing  us  about,  saluted  like  gentle- 
men. 

We  bumped  out  over  the  cobblestones  to  one  of  the 
Aremberg  castles.  The  deal'  Duchess  seems  to  pos- 
sess an  unlimited  number.  The  place  was  almost  as 
romantic  as  Warwick,  but  all  furniture  was  gone.  There 
were  endless  little  staircases  and  rooms.  Billy  rushed 
about  looking  for  a  secret  door  or  passage.  Every- 
thing was  named;  I  was  particularly  taken  with  the 
Corridor  des  Chats, 

Namur  and  Liege,  which  I  had  pictured  as  razed  to 
the  ground,  are  intact,  except  for  a  few  houses.  At 
Namur,  the  forts  have  been  rebuilt,  and  the  bridges, 
which  the  Belgians  themselves  blew  up,  are  recon- 
structed. 

At  Namur  the  big  hotel  on  the  hill  above  the  old 
French  fort  is  now  nothing  but  a  shell.  The  Belgians 
directed  their  fire  from  it,  and  in  five  minutes  the 
German  guns  knocked  it  down  like  a  child's  house  of 
blocks.  One  can  see  from  this  height  the  battle- 
field on  the  opposite  hill,  where  the  Germans  charged. 
We  motored  over  there  and  found,  in  the  middle  of 


136  An  Uncensored  Diary 

ripe  grain  fields,  a  ruined  chAteau,  the  remains  of  a 
church,  and  the  few  farmhouses  about.  There  are 
graves  under  the  trees  with  small  wooden  crosses 
above  them,  and  flowers  planted.  The  trees  in  the 
wood  about  the  chateau  which  had  been  splintered  by 
cannon  fire,  had  been  cut  down  and  taken  away. 
Two  springs  since  the  fighting  took  place  had  healed 
the  other  trees.  The  holes  in  the  ground  were  filled 
up  and  covered  with  grain.  It  was  hard  to  believe  so 
many  men  had  fought  and  died  here  about  the  church 
and  chateau,  and  in  the  treeless  meadows. 

While  this  fight  was  going  on,  the  bulk  of  the  Ger- 
man troops  were  marching  into  Namur,  peacefully 
and  unopposed,  by  the  road  along  the  Meuse,  high 
gray  cliffs  shooting  up  from  their  right  hand,  and  the 
river  running  on  their  left.  Only  a  few  kilometres 
over  the  hills,  the  unwitting  Belgians  struggled  to 
protect  their  city.  They  shot  down  a  beautiful  old 
chateau  of  the  Arembergs,  in  order  better  to  direct 
their  fire,  and  fought  all  through  the  woods  back  from 
her  place  up  to  the  open  field  of  which  I  spoke. 
Barbed-wire  entanglements  still  remain  as  witness 
of  the  fighting  in  the  forest. 

We  managed  to  see  much  of  the  country  about 
Namur  that  day,  as  the  soldier  who  drove  our  gray 


An  Uncensored  Diary  137 

government  motor  had  learnt  fearlessness  in  the 
trenches,  as  well  as  a  certain  recklessness  and  disre- 
gard of  life  that  kept  my  heart  in  my  mouth.  We 
were  followed  by  three  more  motors,  filled  with 
fat  Swedish  and  Danish  Socialists.  If  our  car 
slowed  up,  we  could  see  the  others  beating  up  the 
white  dust  on  the  limestone  road  behind  us.  Our 
chauffeur  would  as  soon  have  been  captured  by  the 
Russians  as  let  them  come  up  with  us.  Excellenz 
shook  his  head  to  think  that  the  German  Govern- 
ment now  allowed  socialists,  and  foreigners  at  that, 
to  go  touring  through  the  country. 

At  Liege  we  again  went  bounding  about  in  an 
automobile.  Fort  Loncin  was  the  most  interesting 
thing  to  see  there,  as  the  city  is  scarcely  touched. 
The  Germans  attacked  the  fort  from  the  middle  of 
the  city,  firing  Austrian  30.5-cm.  guns  from  a  cen- 
tral square.  This  news  was  rather  a  blow  to  us  who 
had  been  told  of  the  platforms  of  concrete  for  the 
guns,  secretly  built  by  the  Germans  before  the  war 
miles  outside  of  the  city.  Fort  Loncin  was  not  pre- 
pared for  an  attack  from  the  rear  in  this  way.  Their 
cannon  could  do  everything  but  shoot  backward. 
In  the  middle  of  the  night,  on  August  14th,  after 
seven  days'  siege,  the  fort  blew  up,  and  when  this 


138  An  Uncensored  Diary 

volcanic  explosion  had  quieted  down  to  the  last  roll- 
ing pebble,  there  was  silence.  One  of  the  shells 
had  penetrated  the  12-foot  concrete  covering  of  the 
fort  and  burrowed  into  the  powder  magazine.  All 
those  in  and  about  the  fort  who  had  not  been  blown 
into  flying  drops  of  blood  by  the  explosion,  were  stun- 
ned and  senseless.  General  Leman  was  picked  up  un- 
conscious three  hours  later  by  the  Germans.  The 
queer  part  is  that  the  thing  is  scarcely  more  terrible 
than  an  Egyptian  ruin  is  terrible  with  its  gigantic  fal- 
len monoliths.  A  great  cannon  lies  turned  upon  its 
back  where  it  was  thrown  from  the  middle  of  the  fort. 
It  does  not  look  uncomfortable.  The  wide  gap  made  by 
the  explosion  is  beginning  to  be  covered  with  grass. 
One  knows  that  four  hundred  Belgian  soldiers  still  lie 
buried  beneath  the  concrete  boulders,  but  somehow  the 
grass  and  the  wild  red  poppies  conceal  from  the  imagi- 
nation the  horrors  the  inventions  of  man  brought  in 
those  seven  days  of  siege.  Down  one  hole  is  a  moulder- 
ing skeleton,  scarcely  visible  in  the  dark  and  rust. 

In  the  country,  one  motors  for  miles  and  sees  noth- 
ing out  of  the  common.  Then,  suddenly,  there  is  a 
village  with  the  inside  of  every  house  scooped  out. 
The  village  two  miles  away  is  intact,  then  come  scat- 
tered ruins  and  odd  graves  by  the  roadside. 


An  Uncensored  Diary  139 

As  for  Brussels  itself,  it  seemed  to  us,  who  had  been 
in  Berlin  for  six  weeks,  a  gay  and  cheerful  place.  That 
we  saw  no  Belgians  certainly  did  not  detract  from  the 
impression,  though  I  think  they  are,  in  spite  of  all,  a 
gayer  people  than  the  Germans.  In  the  park  on 
Sunday,  boys  and  girls  were  playing  football  and 
other  games  and  shrieking  w^ith  delight  as  they 
capered  about.  The  children  romped  unsubdued  on 
the  grass,  while  dogs  rushed  up  and  down,  barking 
with  an  abandon  no  German  dog  would  have  under- 
stood. Billy,  Count  Harrach,  and  I  were  out  to- 
gether for  an  afternoon  in  the  woods.  We  stopped 
and  laughed,  thinking,  as  we  watched  the  Bel- 
gians play,  of  how  we  in  America  had  pictured  them, 
starving  and  dejected. 

But  this  spirit  of  fun  does  not  conceal  the  bitterness 
the  Belgians  feel  toward  the  war  and  the  Germans. 
The  knowledge-  that  they  are  a  conquered  people 
makes  them  bitter,  but  never  kills  their  hope.  Their 
confidence  that  the  English  will  soon  be  back  to  rescue 
them  never  dies.  The  waiters,  the  store  people,  the 
barber  who  washed  my  hair,  all  said:  "In  three 
months!"  (They  have  said  "three  months"  since 
the  war  began.)  They  think  the  English  are  gods 
and  tell  you  stories  of  their  bravery.     A  Belgian 


140  An  Uncensored  Diary 

friend  of  Philip  Piatt  said  that  one  day  he  watched 
from  his  window  a  single  Englishman  hidden  behind 
bushes.  The  man  had  a  pile  of  ammunition  and  a 
machine  gun.  He  shot  and  shot  and  shot,  and  the 
Germans  could  not  find  him.  When  all  his  am- 
munition was  gone,  he  sat  on  a  stump  and  lit  his 
briar  pipe,  smoked  a  while,  and  then  crawled  back 
and  jumped  into  the  river. 

Another  Belgian  watched  a  handful  of  Englishmen 
behind  a  barricade  of  sand  bags  keep  at  bay  a  far 
superior  number  of  Germans  for  twelve  hours.  When 
all  their  shells  were  fired,  instead  of  surrendering, 
they  started  a  cricket  game  and,  in  this  way,  played 
until  all  were  down. 

Upon  Billy's  appealing  to  Count  Harrach,  we  were 
allowed  to  go  to  tea  with  the  Whitlocks.  Diplomatic 
life  in  Belgium  to-day  is  one  of  the  experiences  it  is 
no  harm  to  omit.  If  the  American  Diplomats  at- 
tempt to  be  tactful  with  Belgians  about  the  Germans, 
and  say  that  they  really  are  a  nice  lot  after  all,  Bel- 
gian doors  close  and  hats  are  not  lifted  in  the  street. 
Yet  if  they  refused  to  see  Germans  or  avoided  them 
they  would  shortly  be  requested  to  leave  on  the 
grounds  of  being  anti-German.  Tact  and  diplomacy 
have  a  hard  life  in  Belgium  now. 


An  Uncensored  Diary  141 

Mrs.  Kellogg  was  refused  admittance  to  the 
Petites  Abeilles,  as  they  said  she  had  been  there  the 
day  before  with  Germans.  As  it  happened,  I  was 
the  culprit,  so  things  were  smoothed  over. 

We  also  were  allowed  to  lunch  with  the  Kelloggs, 
unattended.  They  are  delightful  people,  heart  and 
soul  in  the  C.  R.  B.  Mr.  Kellogg  was  much  agitated 
over  the  effect  the  1,000,000  marks  fine  would  have 
upon  American  contributions. 

"Every  time  the  Belgians  disobey  rules  and  get 
fined,"  he  said,  "Americans  stop  sending  money." 

Philip  Piatt,  who  was  also  at  lunch,  had,  as  his 
chief  worry  that  day,  the  knowledge  that  the  three 
young  Princesses  de  Ligne,  who  are  ardently  working 
for  their  country,  were  feeding  the  children  in  the 
Petites  Abeilles  so  fast  that  they  nearly  choked  them. 
The  question  which  bothered  him  sorely  was,  who  to 
get  to  tell  the  three  noble  ladies  that  their  attentions 
would  be  more  appreciated  if  they  were  less  violent. 

Berlin,  August  2d. 

Our  last  night  in  Brussels  we  dined  with  General 
von  Bissing.  The  dinner,  for  some  peculiar  reason, 
was  given  for  us. 

At  7:30,  the  gray  motor,  painted  in  three  places 


142  An  Uncensored  Diary 

with  the  German  coat-of-arms  a  foot  square,  called 
for  us. 

Half  an  hour's  run  and  we  came  to  the  park  of  the 
chateau  of  Trois  Fontaines;  a  well-laid-out  drive 
through  big  trees  soon  brought  us  to  the  square 
w^hite  chateau,  with  its  broad  stone  steps  leading  up 
from  either  side  of  the  terrace  to  the  door.  The 
hall  was  filled  with  officers.  One  very  glorious  look- 
ing person  took  me  in  charge  and  introduced  each 
man  to  me.  They  clicked  their  booted  heels  together 
and  kissed  my  hand.  This  audience  over,  the 
Governor  appeared.  He  is  seventy-two  and  looks 
sixty.  Hjs  face  is  stern  yet  not  unkind.  On  finding 
I  spoke  no  German,  he  changed  to  careful,  cor- 
rect French,  beginning  with  the  not  too  original 
question : 

"How  do  you  like  Belgium?" 

I  said  I  thought  it  was  getting  along  very  much 
better  than  I  had  had  any  idea  of.  He  laughed  and 
offered  me  his  arm  to  go  into  dinner.  Billy  followed 
with  Countess  Mengerson. 

Through  the  hall  and  front  drawing  room  we 
marched  into  the  white-panelled  dining  room,  the 
parade  of  officers  following.  The  servants  behind 
our  chairs  were  soldiers  in  feldgrau.     I  felt  as  if 


An  Uncensored  Diary  143 

one  of  them  should  stand  in  a  corner  and  blow  on  a 
bugle  the  order  to  commence  eating. 

I  had  had  instructions  from  every  officer  in  Brus- 
sels to  talk  to  the  General  about  his  sack  factory  and 
the  industrial  exhibit,  and  the  Hospital  of  Saint- 
Giles,  so  I  dived  in  without  waiting  to  taste  my  soup. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  was  no  effort  to  tell  the  Gover- 
nor that  they  had  all  interested  me  hugely,  for  it 
was  quite  true.  I  highly  approve  of  his  giving  the 
people  work  and  no  one  could  but  admire  the 
hospital. 

"I  have  a  great  deal  of  sympathy  for  these  people, 
who  after  all  were  not  responsible  for  starting  the 
war,"  said  he. 

"Are  you  going  to  let  the  cattle  go  to  northern 
France.^"  I  asked. 

"No,"  said  he. 

"Are  you  the  man  from  whom  the  order  comes .^" 

"Yes,  but  I  refused  this  afternoon  to  let  the  cattle 
go  out  of  Belgium." 

"Why.?"  I  asked. 

"They  don't  need  them  in  France;  they  have 
enough  to  eat." 

"But  they  have  no  animal  food  at  all,"  I  said. 
"No  eggs,  nor  milk,  nor  meat."     Mr.  Kellogg  had 


144  An  Uncensored  Diary 

said  so  and  he  knows  what  northern  France  has  to 
eat  as  well  as  he  knows  the  alphabet. 

"No,  I  cannot,"  said  the  General. 

I  said  no  more  as  I  was  afraid  I  might  get  the 
C.  R.  B.  into  trouble  through  meddling  in  their 
affairs.  I  suppose  Von  Bissing  was  afraid  to  let 
even  the  300  cows  asked  for  go  out,  as  a  precedent 
once  started  might  be  hard  to  stop.  The  French 
are  Uving  on  starvation  rations  now,  or  the  minimum 
amount  possible.  Most  of  the  grain  crop  in  northern 
France  will  go  to  the  Germans,  as  they  have  fer- 
tilized the  ground,  planted  and  gathered  the  crop 
themselves.  They  allow  100  gr.  a  day  to  each  French 
person. 

I  said  I  was  greatly  interested  to  hear  that  he, 
Von  Bissing,  had  made  plans  for  feeding  the  Belgians 
from  their  own  soil  if  the  C.  R.  B.  had  to  leave  and  if 
no  other  neutral  country  could  carry  on  the  work. 
England  probably  wouldn't  trust  the  Dutch,  and  the 
Spaniards  wouldn't  have  the  business  ability. 

"Yes,"  said  Von  Bissing,  "I  am  convinced  it 
could  be  done.  The  people  might  not  have  enough 
to  eat  but  they  would  not  starve." 

Perhaps  this  might  be  possible  if  the  harvest  were 
good,  but  the  weather  is  a  tricky  friend. 


An  Uncensored  Diary  145 

Count  Harrach  sat  on  my  other  side.  Much  to 
my  disgust,  I  had  had  to  give  my  diary  up  to  be 
censored  in  the  afternoon.  I  asked  Harrach  if  he 
had  seen  it. 

"Yes,"  said  he,  severely.  "And  you  have  said 
a  number  of  things  about  us  which  are  not  very 
pleasant."     My  heart  sank — what  had  I  said.'^ 

"I  never  meant  to  say  anything  nasty,"  I  said 
humbly,  "you  have  all  been  tremendously  nice  to 
us  and  we  really  do  appreciate  it.  I  said  wonderful 
things  about  you,  anyway,  did  you  read  that  part.^^" 

"No,"  he  said  crossly. 

"I  said  you  were  one  of  the  nicest  men  I'd  ever 
met." 

"That  makes  no  difference.  You  wrote  of  Belgian 
atrocities  by  our  soldiers.  You  said  that  the  German 
officers  stood  on  the  piano  of  a  Belgian  minister  with 
their  shoes." 

"I  would  have  said  the  same  of  my  brothers  if  they 
had  done  it,"  I  insisted,  still  worried. 

"Your  brothers  are  not  German  officers.  This  is 
not  what  we  gave  you  permission  to  come  into 
Belgium  for." 

I  said  I  would  scratch  out  that  part  about  the 
piano. 


146  An  Uncensored  Diary 

We  argued  for  ages  and  I  complained  to  Von  Biss- 
ing  and  asked  if  I  wasn't  right,  until  finally  I  gathered 
that  I  was  being  unmercifully  teased. 

"In  any  case,"  Harrach  finished,  scathingly,  "I 
will  not  forgive  you  because  you  are  a  suffragette!" 

I  asked  Von  Bissing  if  he  approved  of  suffrage,  and 
he    said:      "Never!     It    is    something    terrible   for 


women." 


"Madame  thinks  the  German  women  do  nothing 
but  hunt  their  husbands'  slippers  and  wait  on  them," 
Harrach  explained,  and  he  insisted  that  the  only 
reason  American  women  were  for  suffrage  was  be- 
cause they  never  had  more  than  two  children  so  had 
too  much  time  on  their  hands.  I  said  my  mother 
had  six  children,  but  I  did  not  add  that  she  took  not 
the  slightest  interest  in  the  vote. 

After  dinner  we  moved  to  one  of  the  drawing 
rooms.  The  windows  looked  out  on  a  stretch  of 
lawn  flanked  on  either  side  by  high  trees.  At  the 
end  of  the  lawn  was  a  pond,  and  beyond  that  were 
meadows  and  woods.  On  the  right  and  left  sides  of 
the  house  were  gardens  and  terraces. 

Billy  talked  with  Von  Bissing  the  rest  of  the 
evening  and  I  sat  on  a  long  lounge  with  Harrach,  Von 
Lanken,  Count  Mengerson  and  Doctor  Rieth. 


An  Uncensored  Diary  147 

"Thank  heaven  there  are  no  princesses  here,"  said 
I,  "I  can  sit  on  the  sofa.  I  don't  see  what  right  prin- 
cesses have  to  a  monopoly  on  comfortable  furniture." 

Von  Bissing  had  the  most  wonderful  cigarettes. 
Harrach  said  they  came  from  the  Kaiser.  I  wish  I 
were  a  friend  of  the  Kaiser.  The  German  substitute 
for  tobacco  is  vile. 

At  ten  the  motors  were  announced  and  we  all  said 
good-night.  With  clicking  heels  the  officers  bowled 
us  out,  the  handsome  aide-de-camp-en-chef  po- 
litely seeing  us  into  the  car;  we  rolled  out  of  the  park 
past  the  lodge  and  the  big  iron  gates,  while  the 
Governor's  guard,  in  cream-coloured  uniform,  stood 
at  salute. 

"Did  you  have  a  good  time.'^"  asked  Billy. 

"Yes,"  said  I,  and  with  true  regard  for  the  impor- 
tant things  in  life,  I  added:  "But  I  had  on  the  most 
dreadful  dress  I  own." 

Harrach  came  back  to  the  hotel  with  us  and  we 
talked  till  quite  late. 

The  Lusitania  was  mentioned — dangerous  topic! 

"It  was  with  joy  we  heard  of  its  sinking,"  said 
Harrach,  most  humane  of  men. 

"It  was  with  horror  we  heard  of  it,"  said  Billy. 

"It  was  armed,"  said  Harrach. 


148  An  Uncensored  Diary 

"It  was  not,"  said  Billy. 

"Help!"  thought  I. 

Then  they  both  looked  at  each  other,  burst  out 
laughing,  and  agreed  to  change  the  subject. 

The  point  of  view  of  the  Germans  in  Belgium  is  dif- 
ferent from  that  of  the  Germans  at  home.  In  Ger- 
many, the  opinion  of  statesmen  and  business  men 
seems  strongly  against  annexation  or  retaining  any 
hold  on  Belgium.  The  contrast  of  the  civil,  as 
against  the  military  opinion,  shows  when  one  talks 
to  those  now  in  charge  in  Belgium.  The  govern- 
ment in  Belgium  is,  of  course,  strictly  military,  from 
stern  old  General  Von  Bissing  down.  Most  of  these 
men  fought  through  the  country  they  are  now  ruling 
and  they  feel  differently  about  letting  it  slip  away. 
The  mildest  say:  "Well,  in  any  case,  it  will  not  be  as 
before  the  war."  Others  want  a  free  Belgium,  "but 
with  some  sort  of  supervision,  you  know.  If  she  is 
given  absolute  freedom,  she  would  only  become 
England's  pawn  again."  More  want  an  indemnity, 
instead  of  paying  one  themselves,  as  they  talk  of  in 
Berlin.  The  point  is,  they  do  not  want  to  lose  their 
hold  on  the  country.  Some  would  charge  Belgium 
a  heavier  toll  than  she  is  paying  now.  The 
$8,000,000  a  month  covers  only  half  the  cost  of 


An  Uncensored  Diary  149 

governing  and  maintaining  an  army  in  Belgium. 
The  man  in  charge  of  Tournai  said  that  10,000,000 
marks  of  German  money  came  into  Belgium  over  and 
above  the  40,000,000  marks  which  were  paid  to  Ger- 
many each  month. 

"No  other  country  in  the  world  would  allow  that," 
said  he. 

"We  have  destroyed  about  $400,000,000  worth  of 
Belgian  property,"  they  say;  but  they  do  not 
count  the  losses  to  Belgium  through  the  two  years' 
paralysis  of  her  industries,  and  the  closing  of  her 
port. 

What  Billy  said  in  his  article,  in  regard  to  the 
German  attitude  toward  the  occupation  and  invasion 
of  Belgium,  as  contrasted  with  outside  opinion,  I 
quote : 

"The  Germans  consider  their  invasion  of  Belgium 
an  ordinary  act  of  war,  and  ask  that  their  administra- 
tion of  Belgium  should  be  considered  as  an  adminis- 
tration of  a  conquered  countrj^ — like  the  administra- 
tion of  Serbia.  The  Belgians  and  their  friends 
consider  the  invasion  of  Belgium  a  crime;  they 
consider  the  mere  fact  that  there  is  a  German 
administration  in  Belgium  a  continuing  crime,  and 
they  do  not   care   about   considering   whether   the 


150  An  Uncensored  Diary 

administration  is  more  or  less  decent,  or  more  or  less 
rotten. 

"From  the  point  of  view  of  the  administration  of  a 
conquered  country,  the  Germans  are  giving  Belgium 
a  decent,  efficient,  stern  government." 

I  asked  an  officer  if  there  was  any  supervision  of  the 
schools  by  Germans. 

"Unfortunately  not,"  he  answered.  "We  should 
have  it,  as  the  Belgian  schoolmasters  do  anything 
but  teach  affection  for  the  Germans.  If  we  keep 
Belgium,  we  shall  of  course  supervise  the  schools." 

In  July,  on  the  national  fete  day  of  the  Belgians, 
Cardinal  Mercier  said  Mass  in  the  Brussels  Cathedral. 
Saint  Gudule  was  crowded  and  still.  Permission 
had  been  given  for  the  singing  of  the  Brabangonne. 
The  Cardinal,  who  knew  his  people  and  the  orders 
of  the  German  Government,  had  sent  word  there  was 
to  be  no  demonstration.  At  the  end  of  Mass,  the 
great  congregation  took  up  their  National  Anthem. 
They  sang  it  through  and,  at  the  end,  the  old  Cardi- 
nal walked  out  among  his  priests  and  choir  boys. 
His  hands  were  folded  like  the  pictures  of  a  praying 
saint,  his  eyes  looked  straight  before  him,  and  tears 
streamed  down  his  face.  The  people,  perfectly  well 
behaved  till  now,  broke  into  cries  of:    '^Vive  le  Roi  ! 


An  Uncensored  Diary  151 

Vive  le  Cardinal  Mercier  /"  The  old  man  is  adored 
by  his  people.  To  show  their  affection,  they  dis- 
obeyed his  orders,  for  which  I  doubt  if  he  thanked 
them. 

That  evening,  as  his  carriage  drove  through  the 
streets  to  the  station,  the  holiday  crowd  again  took 
up  the  cry  of  "  Vive  le  Roi !  Vive  Monseigneur  le 
Cardinal .'"  A  fine  of  a  million  marks  was  imposed 
for  this  celebration.  The  people  knew  they  would 
be  fined  if  they  did  this  kind  of  thing,  but  evidently 
they  thought  it  was  worth  the  price. 

At  the  end  of  a  street,  on  which  all  but  German 
soldiers  are  forbidden  to  go,  is  a  statue  symbolizing 
Belgium,  free  and  independent.  All  day  long  the 
men  of  Brussels  walked  past  the  street,  looked  up 
toward  the  statue,  and  lifted  their  hats.  The 
women  bowed.  Each  passerby  wore  a  piece  of  green 
ribbon,  and  the  green  meant  "Hope."     .     .     . 

A  year  ago,  on  the  national  fete  day,  the  Belgians 
closed  their  shops.  This  they  were  forbidden  to  do 
again  under  the  penalty  of  a  heavy  fine.  The  shops 
were  kept  open  but  no  wares  were  in  the  windows; 
the  proprietor  sat  in  his  back  room  with  his  feet  upon 
the  mantel-piece  and  his  back  to  the  door,  smoking  a 
pipe. 


152  An  Unceruored  Diary 

Berliut  August  Jiih. 

Every  one  congratulated  us  on  our  trip  to  Bel- 
gium; they  say  it  is  quite  unique,  particularly  my 
having  been  allowed  to  go. 

I  went  to  the  Embassy  to-day  to  lunch.  Billy 
lunched  with  Von  Pritwitz.  Every  time  Billy  has  a 
new  idea  about  the  war  he  gets  a  German  and  inflicts 
it  on  him.  This  idea  is  that  Germany's  idea  of  peace 
is  on  the  plan  of  a  thermometer.  The  height  of  the 
mercury  denotes  Germany's  military  success — the 
higher  the  mercury,  the  more  Germany  will  say  she 
absolutely  must  have.  Freezing  point  is  territorial 
integrity.  As  the  mercury  sinks  below  that,  she  pays 
indemnities  to  Belgium  and  France;  lower  still,  gives 
back  Alsace-Lorraine;  then  Schleswig-Holstein,  her 
portion  of  Poland,  and  so  on  down  through  the  re- 
duction of  her  army  and  navy  and  the  paring  off  of 
her  territory. 

Hindenburg  has  been  given  charge  of  the  eastern 
front,  proving  that  Austria  must  have  been  feeling 
rather  dejected.  He  was  in  command  almost  two 
weeks  before  the  news  came  out.  It  must  be  a  great 
blow  to  Austrian  pride. 

I  wonder  if  he  will  drive  the  Russians  back  a 


An  U licensor ed  Diary  153 

second  time.     When  Hindenburg  won  the  battle  of 
Tannenberg  and   drove  the  Russians  out  of  East 
Prussia,  he  was  executing  in  reahty  what  he  had 
lectured    the    military    students    about   for    twenty 
years.     In  his  lecture  course  he  had  called  it  the 
"Battle  of  the  Masurian  Lakes,"  and  none  in  the 
world  knew  so  well  what  to  do  in  just  the  situation 
which  arose  as  did  this  retired  general.     He  had  been 
refused,  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  as  too  old,  and 
was  obliged  to  sit  at  home  helpless,  and  read  about 
the  Russians  swarming  into  his  country.     At  this 
point,  the  Kaiser  remembered  Hindenburg.     In  the 
middle  of  the  night  orders  arrived  that  the  General 
in  command  of  the  eastern  front  had  been  deposed 
and  Hindenburg  put  in  his  place.     A  special  train  was 
waiting  and  Hindenburg  started  at  two  in  the  morn- 
ing and  worked   out  his  plans  as  he  sped  toward 
the  advancing  Russian   army.     In  three  days  the 
enemy  was  in  retreat  and  Germany  was  saved.     Is 
it  a  wonder  the  people  call  him:     Unser  Hinderi' 
burg?     The  story  goes  that  the  General  who  was 
in  command  sent  word  to  the  Kaiser  that  he  must 
retreat  behind  the  Oder.     The  Kaiser  sent  word  back : 
"Retire  behind  the  Oder,  but  without  the  army," 
and   immediately    sent   for  old   Hindenburg.     The 


154  An  Uncensored  Diary 

General  never  plays  politics.  A  few  years  ago,  when 
there  was  a  general  inspection  of  troops,  they  con- 
ducted a  sham  battle.  General  Von  Moltke  managed 
to  get  a  very  strong  position;  then  the  Kaiser,  as  a 
grand  finale,  led  an  immense  cavalry  charge  down  a 
plain  and  exposed  his  troops  to  ^e  from  three  sides. 
As  a  grand  stand  play,  it  was  magnificent.  Trium- 
phant, the  Kaiser  rode  up  to  General  Hindenburg, 
the  referee. 

"How  was  that,  General.^"  he  demanded,  proudly. 

The  General  saluted. 

"All  dead  but  one.  Sir,"  he  said. 

August  5th, 

We  saw  Mr.  Hoover  and  Doctor  Kellogg  at  the  Es- 
planade. Hoover  corrected  Billy's  article  on  Belgium 
and  was  very  complimentary.  He  told  us  his  only 
orders  from  the  English  Government  were:  "Honesty 
in  execution,  efficiency  in  distribution."  Considering 
the  C.  R.  B.  does  the  largest  grain  business  in  the 
world,  and  that  only  on  sufferance  of  the  British 
Government,  this  sounds  rather  liberal. 

Hoover  and  Kellogg  are  here  negotiating  for  50,000 
Dutch  cows  for  northern  France.  England,  in  order 
to  keep  cattle  out  of  Germany,  buys  half  of  all  Dutch 


An  Uncensored  Diary  155 

exports.  This  is  more  than  England  wants,  so  she  has 
agreed  to  let  the  C.  R.  B.  have  a  share  of  the  half. 
The  consent  of  the  German  Government  now  has  to 
be  obtained.  There  is  no  reason  why  the  Germans 
should  not  let  the  cattle  go  to  northern  France,  as 
they  could  not  get  them  for  themselves,  anyway. 
As  Holland  has  almost  as  many  cows  as  she  has 
people,  it  will  not  break  her  heart  to  sell  a 
few. 

Mr.  Hoover  says  the  lower  classes  in  Germany  are 
getting  1,700  calories  a  day.  The  artisans  in  Bel- 
gium, who  are  out  of  work,  are  getting  about  the 
same — a  very  low  rate,  as  2,500  to  3,000  is  normal. 

August  5th, 

The  Berliner  Tageblatt  has  been  suppressed  for 
several  days  as  the  result  of  printing  quite  the  most 
sensible  article  on  peace  that  has  as  yet  been  pub- 
lished. The  author  suggested,  among  other  things, 
that  annexation  w^as  rot  and  that  some  idea  of 
permanent  peace  should  come  out  of  the  war.  I 
wonder  what  jail  he  is  in!  Isn't  it  wonderful  how 
free  the  "press"  is  in  Germany .^^ 

The  rain  has  stopped  and  the  harvest  will  be  good, 
after  all. 


156  An  Uncensored  Diary 

August  9th, 

Stopped  in  to  see  Countess  Gotzen.  She  had  just 
come  up  from  lunch. 

"Well,"  she  began,  "the  waiter  brought  me  a  piece 
of  beef  to-day  which  I  couldn't  recognize  the  cut  of 
for  some  time,  and  I've  been  a  housekeeper  for 
thirty  years.  I  looked  at  it  and  I  said  to  myself: 
'Now  this  isn't  the  leg  and  it  isn't  the  rib,  and  it 
isn't  the  shoulder.'  Then  I  said:  'I  know  what 
it  is,  it's  the  tail!  And  what's  more,  it  isn't  a  cow's 
tail — it's  a  horse's  tail,'  so  I  called  the  waiter. 
'Now,  waiter,'  said  I,  *I  am  not  complaining,  this  is 
purely  a  matter  of  interest,  but  I  want  you  to  take 
this  piece  of  meat  to  the  chef  and  ask  him  if  it  is  not  a 
horse's  tail.' 

"In  a  few  moments  the  man  came  back,  red  to 
the  roots  of  his  hair,  and  said:  *  Madam,  it  is  a 
horse's  tail!'" 


m 

AUSTRIA  AND  HUNGARY 

Berlin y  August  11th. 

Billy  has  gone  to  the  eastern  front.  I  am  most 
wifely  depressed  at  having  him  away. 

August  13th. 

Had  tea  with  Constance  Minot  and  Countess 
Bernstorff  the  other  day.  Just  now  she  is  in  a  great 
state  of  nerves  over  the  thought  of  going  to  America 
to  join  the  Ambassador.  She  declared  she  knew  the 
English  had  been  lying  in  wait  for  her  for  two  years 
and  were  going  to  be  as  disagreeable  as  possible. 

*'They  will  search  everything  I  have,  I  know,"  said 
she.  "They  will  wash  my  back  with  acid  and  they 
will  rip  the  lining  out  of  everything,  and  I  shall  never 
be  fit  to  be  seen  again." 

In  vain  Constance  and  I  assured  her  that  she  would 
be  treated  with  great  respect.  I  told  her  we  had  had 
no  trouble  at  all,  and  she  said:  "What  did  you  do.'^" 
I  answered  that  we  made  love  to  the  English  in- 

157 


158  An  Uncensored  Diary 

spection  officer  and  asked  him  to  dinner,  and  asked 
her  why  she  shouldn't  do  the  same. 

"I  suppose  that  would  be  the  best  way,"  she  an- 
swered. Another  real  grievance  w^as  that  everyone 
had  tried  to  give  her  things  to  bring  to  friends  and 
relatives  in  America. 

"One  woman  gave  me  a  large  box.     I  opened  it  and 

found  a  toy  Zeppehn.     Imagine  if  the  EngHsh  had 

found  that  in  my  trunk !     They  would  have  taken  me 

off  the  boat  and  hanged  me,  surely!"  she  said,  with 

a  laugh. 

August  15th, 

Went  to  Herringsdorf  on  the  one  o'clock  train  Sat- 
urday with  Lithgow  Osborne  and  Christian  Herter. 
The  Ambassador  was  in  Herringsdorf  with  Aileen  and 
Lanier  Winslow.  Kind  Mrs.  Kirk  had  taken  me  all 
over  Berlin  in  the  morning  to  try  and  find  me  a  bath- 
ing suit,  but  it  was  impossible  to  buy  one  without 
four  different  kinds  of  permission,  and  there  was  no 
time  for  that.  I'm  sure  I  don't  see  how  any  one  ever 
gets  clothes  any  more.  It  would  take  three  days  to 
buy  a  petticoat.  Finally,  I  was  reduced  to  borrow- 
ing a  bathing  suit,  a  tight  one-piece  affair,  and 
Kirk's  green  bathrobe.  We  were  met  at  the  station 
by  the  others  and  escorted  in  state  to  the  Kurhaus. 


An  Uncensored  Diary  159 

After  dinner  we  went  for  a  walk  on  the  pier.  I 
was  with  the  Ambassador,  who  kept  making  his 
dry,  humorous  remarks  about  everyone.  Soon  a 
guard  turned  us  back. 

"What's  the  matter.?"  I  asked. 

"You  are  in  Germany,"  rephed  Mr.  Gerard. 
"Don't  forget  that.  They  w^ait  until  they  find  out 
that  people  like  to  do  a  thing,  and  then  at  once 
they  forbid  it." 

"What  I'd  like  best,  Mr.  Gerard,"  said  I,  "would 
be  to  hear  you  talk  to  the  powers  that  be  in  Ger- 
many. It  must  be  rather  diflScult  for  them  to 
understand  all  your  jokes." 

"It  is,"  he  replied.  "They  can't  make  me  out 
at  all  here." 

He  makes  the  most  glorious  remarks  to  every 
one.  I  heard  that,  apropos  of  the  Lusitania,  the 
Ambassador  said  to  the  Chancellor: 

"Your  argument  about  the  Lusitania  amounts 
to  just  this.  If  I  were  to  write  a  note  to  your  sister 
and  say:  'If  you  go  out  on  the  Wilhelm  Platz,  I 
will  shoot  you ! '  and  if  she  did  go  out  on  the  Wilhelm 
Platz  and  I  shot  her — that  would  be  her  fault, 
wouldn't  it?" 

And    one    day    w^hen    Zimmermann    remarked: 


160  An  U licensor ed  Diary 

"The  United  States  couldn't  go  to  war  with  us, 
because  we  have  500,000  trained  Germans  in  the 
United  States,"  the  Ambassador  replied:  "You 
may  have  500,000  trained  Germans  in  the  United 
States,  but  don't  forget  that  we  have  500,001  lamp- 
posts." 

I  left  for  Berlin  the  next  day  at  4 :30.  The  others 
said  I  was  a  great  idiot  not  to  wait  until  Monday  and 
go  home  with  them,  but  I  had  a  feeling  Billy  might 
get  back  earlier,  so  I  left. 

The  next  morning  Billy  got  back.  The  trip  to 
the  front  had  been  a  great  success.  He  went  up  in 
an  aeroplane  over  the  Russian  lines  and  got  shot  at  and 
had  all  sorts  of  a  good  time.  He  said  the  Austrian 
troops,  except  the  Hungarian  Hussars,  were  the  sad- 
dest sight  in  the  world — all  old  men  and  young  boys, 
while  the  Germans  were  strong-looking,  healthy  men. 
The  Germans  call  the  Austrians  Bruderherz,  and  while 
they  are  fond  of  them,  and  say  they  are  very  brave, 
they  add :  "  They  are  now  quite  useless  as  an  army." 
They  said  that  several  times  the  Russians  have  com- 
pletely broken  through  the  Austrian  lines,  but  they 
were  never  clever  enough  to  follow  up  the  advantage. 
The  Germans  have  a  dreadful  time  to  keep  their 
allies    from    a    continual    retreat.     Billy    says    the 


An  Uncensored  Diary  161 

Austrian  and  Hungarian  oflBcers  are  most  lovable, 
and  have  no  notion  of  what  efficiency  means.  They 
build  a  dug-out  that  one  could  knock  down  with  a 
base-ball  bat,  and  plant  flowers  around  any  place  in 
which  they  spend  a  night.  They  always  have  a 
great  deal  of  music,  good  wine,  and  excellent  food, 
and  take  war  far  more  casually  than  do  the  Germans. 
The  Germans  told  Billy  that  the  Austrian  troops  had 
an  annoying  habit  of  picking  up  in  the  night  and 
walking  to  the  rear  five  or  ten  miles,  without  saying 
a  word  to  any  one.  I  should  think  it  would  be  a 
trifle  disquieting  to  wake  up  in  the  morning  and  find 
oneself  holding  a  point  with  no  one  near. 

The  Russians  almost  never  attack  the  German 
troops;  they  always  make  sure  it's  an  Austrian  divi- 
sion before  advancing.  An  officer  gave  Billy  a 
photograph,  taken  after  a  Russian  attack  on  German 
trenches.  One  could  not  see  the  ground  for  the 
bodies  of  crumpled  Russians.  The  most  ghastly 
thing  is  that  they  must  leave  them  where  they  fall  on 
the  ground  or  tangled  in  the  barbed  wire.  When  the 
Germans  attempt  to  rescue  them,  they  are  shot  at, 
so  the  men  lie  there  screaming  till  they  die.  Then 
the  horrible  stench  sickens  the  men  in  the  nearest 
trenches.     I    suppose   the    Germans    also    shoot   if 


162  An  Uncensored  Diary 

rescue  is  attempted,  or  the  Russians  would  rescue 
their  own  men.  A  German  spoke  to  Billy  and  said 
he  didn't  want  any  lunch;  he'd  just  gotten  several 
men  out  of  their  barbed  wire — the  poor  wretches 
were  in  a  sad  state.  They  had  hung  there  wounded 
for  several  days,  and  their  gaping  flesh  crawled. 

A  German  aviator  told  Billy  that  the  Allies,  since 
the  July  offensive,  have  command  of  the  air  on  the 
western  front.  He  said  the  English  and  American 
aviators  were  the  most  daring  and  fearless,  and  never 
hesitated  to  attack.  All  the  reporters  in  Billy's  party 
were  taken  up  in  aeroplanes.  Billy's  aviator  was  nice, 
but  the  others  were  irritated  at  having  to  take  up  pas- 
sengers and  did  all  sorts  of  dives  and  rapid  circles, 
so  the  poor  newspaper  men  were  almost  terrified  into 
hysteria.  Ackerman  of  the  "United  Press,"  after  a 
swoop  or  two,  spent  the  rest  of  his  flight  in  the 
bottom  of  his  machine  with  his  head  in  his  hands. 
He  was  quite  green  when  he  reached  ground,  so  I 
don't  imagine  the  observations  he  took  would  ever 
damage  any  one  much. 

The  Russian  prisoners  said  there  were  no  French 
or  Japanese  oflScers  at  the  front.  If  there  were  any, 
they  advised  from  the  background. 

The  only  things  left  of  Brest  Litovsk  are  three 


An  Uncen sored  Diary  163 

churches  and  a  new  rock-garden,  flowers  and  "ver- 
boten"  sign  complete,  built  amid  the  ruins  by  the 
Germans.  Warsaw  is  much  the  same  as  ever. 
Whoever  spread  the  rumour  that  all  children  under 
seven  years  of  age  were  dead  in  Poland,  prob- 
ably went  through  Warsaw  in  the  night.  The  Jews 
to  whom  Billy  spoke  said  they  hated  Germans,  Poles, 
and  Russians  equally,  but  at  least  no  one  shied  bricks 
at  them  under  German  rule. 

War  corresponding  to-day  miust  be  a  pleasant  life. 
You  go  de  luxe  as  the  guests  of  the  government;  you 
are  dined  and  wined  by  Generals,  while  a  Hungarian 
orchestra  outside  the  dug-out  supplies  a  "potato 
cantata,"  or  a  "fugue  to  go  with  the  beans." 
Dress  parades  and  cavalry  manoeuvres  are  given 
for  your  benefit,  and  you  have  automobiles  and 
wagons  at  your  disposal.  The  only  drawback  is 
that,  if  you  happen  to  say  anything  either  uncommon 
or  interesting  in  your  story  to  the  newspapers,  it  is 
cut  out  by  the  censor. 

August  18th. 

Billy  and  I  saw  Doctor  Moll  this  morning  about 
children  and  the  birth  rate.  He  is  getting  statistics 
for  us  on  infant  mortality  and  on  the  birth  rate. 


164  An  Uncensored  Diary 

Infant  mortality  is  lower  than  it  has  ever  been,  just 
as  every  one  told  me.  The  health  of  older  children, 
owing  to  the  care  given  them  through  private  so- 
cieties, is  in  some  places  better  than  formerly,  and  in 
no  place  worse.  There  is  no  increase  in  either  rickets 
or  tuberculosis.  There  was,  in  the  beginning  of  the 
war,  an  increase  in  tuberculosis  but  this  was  im- 
mediately taken  in  hand.  The  birth  rate  in  Berlin 
is  down  to  about  11  per  1,000. 

The  care  given  mothers  of  small  infants  I  have 
spoken  of  before,  so  won't  repeat.  Dr.  Gertrude 
Baumer,  and  others,  told  me  that  unmarried  mothers 
and  illegitimate  children  get  the  same  allowance  from 
the  State  as  others,  if  it  is  proved  that  the  father 
is  a  soldier.  Doctor  Moll  said  that  there  were  so  many 
private  institutions  for  the  care  of  mothers  of  il- 
legitimate children,  and  for  the  children,  that  the 
State  assistance  was  usually  unnecessary.  The  ille- 
gitimacy rate  is  somewhat  higher  than  before  the  war. 

As  to  what  would  be  done  to  increase  the  birth  rate 
after  the  war,  the  Doctor  was  uncertain.  He  con- 
firmed what  Doctor  Baumer  told  me,  and  added  that  all 
families  will  be  insured  whether  working  in  factories 
or  not.  They  will  thus  all  have  free  medical  care 
when  ill,  and  free  attendance  at  childbirth  for  mothers. 


An  Uncensored  Diary  165 

This  will  be  substituted  for  the  free  medical  care  now 
given  to  wives  and  children  of  soldiers. 

The  childless  will  probably  not  be  allowed  to 
will  more  than  half  their  money — the  other  half  will 
go  to  the  State  for  the  care  of  children.  Doctor  Moll 
went  on  to  say  that  the  laws  of  illegitimacy  will  not 
be  radically  changed.  It  will  not  be  legalized. 
Inheritance  laws  will  almost  certainly  be  the  same  for 
illegitimate  as  for  legitimate  children.  They  believe 
the  children  must  not  be  allowed  to  suffer;  they  must 
in  every  way  have  the  same  protection  as  others. 
To  legalize  illegitimacy  would  increase  it  greatly, 
and  Moll  says  they  still  believe  marriage  the  best 
status  under  which  to  rear  young. 

Moll  said,  as  does  everyone  else,  that  they  will 
try  to  bring  the  German  women  again  to  the  occupa- 
tion of  hausfrau^  and  added  that,  to  forbid  her  work- 
ing for  her  living  without  offering  her  a  home  and 
husband  as  a  substitute,  would  be  unjust. 


August  19th. 

Deliver  me  from  efficiency,  and  save  me  from  the 
hand  of  mine  enemy,  the  police!  Peacefully  and 
unobtrusivelv  did  we  wish  to  travel  to-morrow  to 


166  An  Uncensored  Diary 

Vienna,  and  we  discover  that  the  simplest  way  in 
which  it  is  to  be  done  is  to  visit  ten  police  bureaus  and 
a  consulate,  in  none  of  which  does  one  do  anything 
but  wait  for  hours,  and  then  get  asked  one's  age! 
If  they  don't  ask  how  old  you  are,  they  tell  you  you 
are  in  the  wrong  bureau.  The  right  bureau  is  two 
miles  away  and  there  are  no  taxi-cabs.  When  you 
get  to  the  right  place,  they  tell  you  it  closes  in  five 
minutes  and  that  seventy-five  people  are  ahead  of 
you,  so  you  must  come  the  next  day,  only  the  next 
day  is  Sunday,  so  you  have  to  wait  till  Monday  as 
the  police  stations  are  closed. 

Here  is  what  we  did  this  morning: 

1.  Police  station,  our  district,  where  we  have 
gemeldet  eight  times  already.  Told  to  go  to 
Central  Police  Station. 

2.  Ten  minutes'  walk. 

3.  Twenty  minutes  in  subway. 

4.  Four  flights  of  stairs  as  high  as  the  Statue  of 
Liberty. 

5.  Room  363 — that's  wrong. 

6.  Go  to  375 — Policeman  asks,  in  a  growl,  when 
we  were  born  and  then  gives  us  two  sheets  of 
foolscap  written  in  German  script.  We  can't 
read  it  and  he  tells  us  to  fill  it  out  and  get  it 


An  Uncensored  Diary  167 

stamped  by  the  police  in  the  nearest  station  to 
our  house. 

7.  Ride  back  in  subway — no  cabs  anywhere. 

8.  Crowded  police  station.     Wait. 

9.  Laborious   filling   out   of   blanks.     Age   asked 
twice. 

10.  Back  in  subway  to  Alexander  Platz. 

11.  Four  flights  up. 

12.  Long  wait  at  end  of  line. 

13.  Age  asked  and  a  check  mark  put  at  the  end  of 
filled  out  blanks.     Order  to  go  to  room  365. 

14.  Room  365  sends  you  downstairs. 

15.  Man  downstairs  in  room  full  of  dossiers  on 
people  with  name  beginning  with  B;  looks  up 
dossier  on  Bullitt  and  asks  age.  Sends  us  up 
two  flights. 

16.  Wait  in  large  room,  like  a  lecture-hall,  full  of 
people.  Two  policemen  on  platforms,  writing, 
pay  no  attention  to  any  one  who  looks  in  a 
hurry. 

17.  Old  man,  with  stiff  joints,  dares  to  say  he  will 
die  if  he  doesn't  get  to  Vienna  to-morrow. 
Police  tell  him  to  sit  down  and  come  again 
Monday. 

18.  Enter  Swede,  who  says  he  has  to  go  to  Vienna 


168  An  Uncensored  Diary 

to-morrow.  Policeman  asks  his  age.  Swede 
says :  "  What-the-Hell-d'you-wanta-know-that- 
for?  I've  told  it  nine  times  already  to-day." 
Policeman  says  he  may  be  a  spy.  Swede  says 
he  isn't,  and  that  it's  the  damnedest  system  he 
ever  saw  anywhere.  Rest  of  the  room  begins 
to  look  pleased.  Policeman  tells  Swede  to  come 
again  Monday. 

19.  We  begin  to  wonder  how  long  the  people  we 
have  asked  to  lunch  will  wait  for  us. 

20.  All  the  policemen  leave  the  room  with  every- 
one's papers  and  don't  come  back. 

21.  I  say  I'll  never  be  polite  to  another  one  of  them 
and  that  I  don't  care  if  I  never  get  to  Vienna. 

22.  Billy  says  he  doesn't  see  why  I  don't  think  it's 
funny.  I  object  to  having  my  sense  of  humour 
questioned,  and  say  I'm  hungry. 

23.  We  decide  to  leave.  Go  without  papers  or 
anything. 

24.  Policeman  we  meet  says  it's  too  late  for  passes 
that  day,  anyway. 

Chris  Herter,  Lithgow  Osborne,  and  Herr  Horst- 
mann  were  waiting  at  the  Bristol  for  us.  We 
poured  out  our  woes   and   attempted  to  exagger- 


Ail  Uncensored  Diary  1G9 

ate,  but  couldn't.  Herr  Horstmann,  being  most 
sympathetic,  said,  if  we'd  write  down  an  account, 
he'd  send  in  a  complaint  from  the  Foreign  Office. 
I  have  decided  it  is  useless  to  try  and  be  patient 
with  a  German  policeman.  It  doesn't  do  any  good, 
and  swearing  might  relieve  the  feelings.  He  is  too 
used  to  having  the  subdued  public  be  polite  to  him ; 
he  doesn't  notice  it.  If  you  make  a  noise  and  tell 
him  he  is  a  worthless  idiot,  he  may  think  you  are  a 
superior  officer  and  do  something  for  you. 

Billy  saw  Helfferich  the  Vice-Chancellor  in  the 
afternoon.  Helfferich  is  not  impressive  to  look  at, 
but  he  is  the  cleverest  man  in  the  government,  and 
one  of  the  five  men  who  run  Germany.  He  said 
Germany  could  go  on  indefinitely  as  far  as  food  was 
concerned,  and  that  the  harvest  was  from  twenty- 
five  to  thirty  per  cent,  better  than  last  year.  The 
country  will  be  far  better  off  this  coming  year  for 
food,  than  last  year.  The  bread  rations  will  probably 
be  increased  and  the  cows,  owing  to  better  food,  will 
produce  more  milk. 

As  to  peace  terms,  he  said  that  one  of  the  first 
would  be  the  abandonment  of  the  economic  war 
against  Germany.  He  said  he  did  not  like  to  say 
much  about  indemnities,  as  it  made  their  opponents 


170  An  Uncensored  Diary 

foam  at  the  mouth  to  hear  the  word,  but  that,  if 
Germany  was  in  a  mihtary  position  to  demand  them, 
at  the  time  peace  was  to  be  concluded,  they  should 
certainly  take  them.  He  went  on  to  say  that  there 
were  only  two  ways  of  getting  the  Germans  out  of 
the  territory  they  now  held — one  was  to  drive  them 
out;  the  other  to  buy  them  out.  He  said  this  war  was 
too  complicated  for  the  Germans  to  be  able  to  say 
what  they  wanted.  He  also  said  that  they  would  insist 
upon  England's  agreeing  to  the  unhindered  passage 
of  merchantmen  in  the  time  of  war.  It  was,  he  said, 
not  only  necessary  for  Germany,  but  for  all  neutral 
nations  as  well,  to  insist  upon  such  an  agree- 
ment. 

He  said  it  was  impossible  now  to  say  whether 
England  and  Germany  could  come  together  after 
the  war.  Lasting  peace  for  Germany  means  to  him 
primarily  strong  frontiers  and  a  strong  army  and 
navy,  and  good  alliances  not  an  international  con- 
ciliatory body  with  a  sanction  behind  it. 

We  went  to  the  Grews'  in  the  evening.  Quite  a 
large  party.  We  had  expected  to  dance,  but  Count 
Zach,  the  Chancellor's  son-in-law  came,  and  Count 
Sehr-Thoss,  so  we  couldn't.  Both  these  gentlemen 
were  depressed  because  they  had  just  had  news  of  the 


An  Uncensored  Diary  171 

death  of  a  dear  friend  on  the  eastern  front.  I  have 
spoken  but  Httle  of  the  sorrow  with  which  one  is  sur- 
rounded. Brave  as  these  remarkable  people  are,  the 
atmosphere  is  continually  depressing. 

Billy  and  I  talked  with  Mr.  Gerard  principally. 
He  said,  among  other  things,  that  it  was  a  great  pity 
the  United  States  didn't  know  more  about  Germany, 
and  that  the  profound  state  of  ignorance  everyone 
was  in  at  home  was  very  dangerous — that  it  was  im- 
possible for  newspaper  men  to  get  frank  statements 
of  facts  back  to  America,  since  they  were  blocked  by 
two  censors,  and  that  one  of  the  best  things  to  have 
was  more  newspaper  men  coming  in  for  a  few  months 
at  a  time. 

"I  hope  they  will  send  you  back  again  next  spring," 
he  said.  He  asked  Billy  if  he'd  seen  Helfferich,  and 
on  B's  saying  "Yes,"  Mr.  Gerard  said  he  thought 
Helfferich  had  done  almost  more  than  any  one  else  to 
maintain  peace  with  the  U.  S.  in  forcing  the  abandon- 
ment of  the  U-boat  war. 

"Helfferich  knows  that  if  the  United  States  comes 
into  the  war,  the  other  neutral  countries  probably 
will  also  come  in,  and  Helfferich  refuses  to  answer 
for  the  state  of  German  finances  in  such  a  case," 
Mr.  Gerard  added. 


172  An  Uncensored  Diary 

Vienna,  August  23d. 

Vienna,  yes,  but  it  certainly  wasn't  through  any 
fault  of  the  Berlin  police  that  we  got  here.  Our  ex- 
periences on  Saturday  were  nothing  to  what  we  went 
through  when  we  "came  again  Monday."  The 
Swede  and  the  old  man  weren't  there,  but  the  room 
was  full.  We  heard  the  policeman,  writing  at  the 
table  on  the  platform,  saying:  " Bitte  Platz  nehmen  ein 
augenblick''  to  the  guileless  and  unsuspecting  public 
as  we  entered.  How  little  did  they  know  that,  at  this 
point,  they  should  wait  three  days  before  any  one 
took  further  notice  of  them.  After  twenty  minutes, 
Billy  walked  to  the  platform  to  remind  the  police- 
man we  were  still  there.  He  told  us  to  wait  a  little 
longer,  that  the  policeman  who  had  our  papers  hadn't 
come  in  yet  and  the  door  of  his  room  was  locked.  We 
had  come  at  nine  o'clock.  At  ten  we  asked  again. 
"Yes,  the  man  was  here."  At  ten-thirty,  another  re- 
minder. ^'  Der  Herr  ist  zu  ein  Konferenz  gegangen/' 
said  the  relentless  one  on  the  platform  as  he  labori- 
ously wrote  the  date  on  a  card,  preparatory  to  asking 
his  next  victim's  age. 

"What's  the  matter  with  the  man.'^"  said  Billy, 
angrily.    ' '  Must  we  go  and  get  another  letter  from  the 


An  Uncensored  Diary  173 

Foreign  Office  in  order  that  someone  shall  pay  atten- 
tion to  us?* 

**He's  not  a  Mensch  T'  stormed  the  policeman. 
"He  is  ein  Herr  !  He  is  a  high  official.  Don't  call 
him  a  Mensch'' 

We  retired,  crushed,  for  another  half  hour.  Some- 
one came  in  and  whispered  that  our  papers  were  lost. 
The  policeman,  unmoved,  turned  to  Billy  and  said  he 
had  orders  not  to  give  us  our  passes  for  three  or  four 
days. 

"Who  gave  you  that  order .'^^  asked  Billy,  calmly. 

No  answer. 

"I  should  like  to  know  your  name,  please,"  said 
Billy. 

Again  no  answer. 

We  made  for  the  nearest  telephone  in  some  heat. 
Doctor  Rodiger,  in  the  Foreign  Office,  who  is  cer- 
tainly the  most  obliging  man  in  Germany,  fixed  the 
matter  up  for  us  so  that,  in  two  hours  and  a  half  more, 
we  had  moved  up  to  the  last  room.  Here,  three  men 
and  two  stenographers  wrote  out  three  identical  his- 
tories of  each  of  us  and  pasted  countless  numbers  of 
our  photographs  wherever  there  was  room.  This 
took  three  quarters  of  an  hour.  An  American  ste- 
nographer could  have  done  all  of  it  in  ten  minutes. 


174  An  Uncensored  Diary 

My  ideas  of  German  efficiency  had  received  a  mor- 
tal blow! 

The  Austrian  Consulate  received  us  long  after 
closing  hour  and  vised  our  passes.  Smilingly,  they 
told  us  that  everyone  always  came  hours  late.  The 
air  seemed  twenty  times  lighter  there  and  no  one 
seemed  to  be  taking  life  seriously. 

We  meldet  off  at  our  own  police  station  and  re- 
called with  horror  that  we  should  have  to  do  the 
whole  thing  over  again  when  we  leave  for  home. 

The  luggage  examination  when  we  entered  Austria 
was  of  a  superficiality  that  charmed  our  American 
souls.  They  scrambled  through  the  trunks  without 
making  a  mess;  they  ran  their  hands  about  the  lin- 
ings of  our  coats  and  hurriedly  looked  in  the  bottoms 
of  our  shoes,  and  still  we  conceived  a  great  affection 
for  them.  When  I  heard  a  man  say,  as  he  rushed 
by  a  guard,  that  he  hadn't  time  to  show  his  ticket, 
I  realized  that  Austria  was  nearer  home  than  Prus- 
sia. 

The  Hotel  Bristol,  where  we  are  staying  in  Vienna, 
is  peopled  with  everything  from  the  Wm.  C.  Bullitts 
to  the  Archduke  Franz  Salvator.  In  luxury,  it  is  the 
last  word.  In  our  room  you  can  telephone,  turn  on 
the  lights,  open  the  door,  and  ring  for  three  different 


An  Uncensored  Diary  175 

varieties  of  servants  from  any  spot  in  which  you  hap- 
pen to  be  at  the  moment. 

We  called  at  the  Embassy  the  morning  we  arrived 
and  presented  our  letters  of  introduction  from  the 
Berlin  Embassy.  The  Penfields  were  away,  but  Mr. 
Grant-Smith  and  Mr.  Dolbeare  were  most  cordial. 
Mr.  Grant-Smith  began  by  telling  Billy  that  the 
Austrians  were  the  most  delightful  people  imaginable, 
and  that  no  one  ever  was  able  to  find  out  anything 
about  them  or  the  situation.  He  said  the  Embassy 
didn't  know  anything  and  nobody  else  did  either. 
That  sounded  rather  discouraging  but  we  didn't  de- 
spair. After  that,  everyone  we  met  told  us  the  same 
thing:  "Delightful,  charming,  sympathetic  people, 
but  slow  as  caterpillars;  it  is  impossible  to  hurry 
them." 

We  lunched  with  Grant-Smith  and  Dolbeare  that 
day.  Mr.  Otto  Bannard  was  also  there.  He  is  In- 
spector-General of  the  American  Red  Cross,  and  he 
was  in  a  great  state  because  it  had  taken  him  three 
weeks  to  get  permission  to  go  to  Belgrade,  and  because 
the  permission  allowed  him  to  stay  just  ten  hours! 
They  were  all  anxious  to  know  what  things  were  like 
in  Berlin.  We  said  you  could  get  enough  to  eat  if  you 
paid  for  it;  that  the  place  was  heavy  and  rather  gloomy, 


176  An  Uncensored  Diary 

and  that  everything  was  so  regulated  you  couldn't  call 
your  soul  your  own ;  that  they  were  anxious  for  peace 
— quite  sure  they  could  never  be  beaten,  and  that  they 
w^ere  showing  splendid  bravery  and  energy. 

We  drove  that  afternoon.  When  we  got  into  the 
cab,  the  driver  said  it  was  forbidden  to  take  a  cab  for 
sight-seeing  but  that  he  would  take  us  to  a  cafe  by  a 
long  circuit  and  there  we  could  drink  a  glass  of  wine 
and  come  home  by  another  circuit.  His,  not  being 
a  Prussian  conscience,  was  quite  satisfied  by  this 
evasion  of  the  law.  We  made  our  detour  rejoicing, 
our  fondness  for  the  Viennese  increasing  at  every 
block.  Vienna  seemed  so  gay  after  Berlin,  the 
women  are  pretty  and  well  dressed,  the  soldiers  salute 
and  still  retain  a  human  expression,  the  pedestrians 
look  as  if  they  took  a  real  interest  in  life,  and  we  be- 
gan to  feel  at  home.  It  is  a  common  saying,  that 
the  Austrians  are  pessimistic  but  gay,  and  the  Ger- 
mans optimistic  but  glum. 

In  the  evening  we  dined  with  Green  and  Foster,  of 
the  Rockefeller  Relief,  and  Doctor  Ryan,  one  of  the 
chiefs  of  the  American  Red  Cross  in  Serbia.  Ryan 
has  had  so  many  adventures  that  he  wouldn't  notice 
anything  less  than  getting  killed  now.  I  asked  him 
if  he'd  seen  much  typhus  in  Serbia. 


An  Uncensored  Diary  177 

"Yes,"  he  said;  *'I  had  a  hospital  with  two  thou- 
sand patients  in  it,  most  of  them  typhus  cases.'* 

"Did  your  staff  get  the  fever?"  I  queried  next. 

"Well,  I  was  the  only  doctor,"  said  he,  "but  six  out 
of  my  twelve  nurses  got  it." 

"Were  you  inoculated.^"  I  still  continued,  blithely. 

"No,"  he  answered.  "I  didn't  need  to  be — I  had 
typhus." 

"Tell  her  about  your  trunk,"  said  Foster. 

"I  was  coming  to  Buda-Pesth,"  said  Ryan  oblig- 
ingly, "  and  as  I  was  operating  all  day,  one  of  my  nurses 
packed  my  things.  I  had  a  souvenir  trunk.  W^hen  I 
got  to  Pesth,  the  men  dropped  it  on  the  platform  and  it 
blew  up.  The  nurse  must  have  packed  a  grenade  in 
with  the  other  things.  It  wounded  three  men  and  I 
was  in  an  awful  mess." 

"Did  they  arrest  you.^"  asked  I. 

" Sure,"  said  Ryan.  "Fined  me  30,000  kronen,  too, 
but  they  let  me  off,  later.  The  men  sued  me  for 
damages,  too." 

Buda-Pesth i  August  28th. 

Owing  to  my  being  seized  with  a  fit  of  economy,  we 
travelled  down  here  second  class.  It  was  crowded 
and   smoky  and  hot,   and   Billy  was  considerably 


178  An  Uncensored  Diary 

annoyed  at  being  thus  inconvenienced,  but  only  said 
he  thought  he'd  stand  up  in  the  corridor  all  the  way, 
which  of  course  made  me  feel  like  a  horrid  brute. 

On  arriving,  we  came  to  the  Ritz,  whose  name  is 
now  changed  to  the  "Duna-palota."  Here  we  took 
rooms  looking  up  the  Danube  and  toward  the  great 
hills  rising  from  the  river.  On  one  side  of  the  river 
there  are  no  mountains,  and  those  on  the  other  side 
stop  abruptly  a  mile  down  the  river.  Opposite  us  is 
the  palace,  with  its  terraced  slope  some  hundred  feet 
above  the  Danube.  The  building  is  large  and  beautiful 
but  it  stands  empty  the  year  around,  for  neither  King 
nor  Archdukes  will  leave  Austria  to  visit  the  other 
half  of  the  kingdom,  a  slight  the  proud  Hungarian 
deeply  resents. 

One  does  not  have  to  be  here  very  long  to  discover 
a  decided  bitterness  toward  Austria.  They  say  that 
the  Hungarian  troops  are  always  put  in  the  front 
trenches  and  that  the  Hungarian  losses  are  pro- 
portionately far  greater  than  the  Austrian  losses. 
We  find  that  here,  as  in  Austria,  there  is  no  love  for 
the  Germans.  They  respect  and  admire  them  and 
trust  them,  but  affection  for  them  they  have  none. 
Of  their  fondness  for  France,  they  speak  continually. 
They  do  not  fight  against  her  and  they  worry  con- 


An  Uncensored  Diary  179 

tinually  over  whether  the  French  will  hate  them  after 
the  war  and  not  allow  them  to  visit  France. 

We  called  on  Mr.  Coffin,  the  American  Consul- 
General,  that  afternoon.  He  received  us  most 
cordially  although  we  had  no  letter  of  introduction. 
As  far  as  I  could  make  out,  he  had  the  affairs  of  all  the 
Allies  to  take  care  of. 

We  sent  our  letter  from  the  Gerards  to  the  Sigrays, 
and  that  night,  after  dinner,  they  met  us  in  the  foyer 
and  introduced  themselves.  They  were  so  very  nice 
and  it  gave  one  a  pleasant  feeling  to  think  there  was 
someone  in  the  town  one  knew. 

The  next  day  we  lunched  with  them.  Count 
Sigray  was  speaking  about  the  interned  English  and 
French.  He  said  one  of  the  many  inspectors  came 
down  to  Vienna  one  day  and  asked  to  see  the  interned 
enemies. 

"Sorry,  sir,"  was  the  answer;  "would  you  be  so 
good  as  to  come  another  day;  to-day  is  a  race  day  and 
they  have  all  gone  to  the  races,  sir."  That  is  the  way 
the  poor  forlorn  interned  enemies  are  treated  in 
Austria.  In  Hungary,  the  few  English  and  French 
do  not  seem  to  be  suffering  much  from  confine- 
ment. Billy  and  I  met  two  of  them  on  Sunday  morn- 
ing on  top  of  the  highest  mountain  near  Buda-Pesth. 


180  An  Uncensored  Diary 

An  English  voice  and  accent  telling  someone  "to 
come  along  now,  do  hurry  up";  and  then  a  man  in 
Harris  tweeds  stalked  out  of  the  woods.  We  decided 
that  if  we  were  going  to  be  interned  we'd  choose 
Austria  or  Hungary. 

Count  Sigray  applied  many  corrosive  adjectives  to 
the  Italians. 

"You  know,"  he  said,  as  if  relating  the  final  out- 
rage, "we  even  have  to  have  a  special  hospital  for  our 
men  who  have  been  bitten  by  Italians !  They  scratch 
and  bite  so  in  close  combat,  that  it's  something 
dreadful."     Billy  and  I  laughed  and  looked  skeptical. 

"That's  true,"  Sigray  protested.  "They  don't 
know  how  to  use  their  fists.  Our  men  don't,  either, 
only  they  don't  bite.  I  know  a  man  who  was  riding 
around  a  hay-stack  and  an  enemy  soldier  stuck  his 
head  up  out  of  the  hay.  The  Hungarian  was  so 
startled  he  couldn't  think  of  anything  to  do  but  slap 
the  man's  face." 

Later,  Countess  Sigray  took  me  to  the  Gyula 
Apponyi's.  Countess  Apponyi  is  an  American  girl 
about  my  age.  Her  husband  is  the  nephew  of 
Count  Albert  Apponyi,  who,  with  a  few  other  men, 
runs  Hungary. 

I  think  the  Hungarians  are  the  most  hospitable 


An  Uncensored  Diary  181 

people  on  earth  except  our  Southerners.  Count 
Apponyi  immediately  asked  me  what  I  wanted  to 
see  and  said  he'd  show  us  everything.  Then  they 
said  we  must  dine  with  them  at  the  Park  Club 
that  night  and  go  on  a  spree  afterward.  Billy  met 
Mr.  Drasche-Lazar,  Tiza's  secretary,  that  same  after- 
noon and  promised  him  to  dine  that  night  at  the  Park 
Club,  so  we  all  went  together.  It  is  a  luxurious  place, 
equipped  with  every  possible  comfort  and  furnished 
extravagantly  with  objets  d'art,  good  and  bad. 
Apponyi  showed  us  all  about  and  assured  us  the 
place  w^as  built  for  flirtations.  Here  all  the  balls  are 
given  in  peace  time. 

"  They  used  to  be  in  private  houses,"  said  our  host. 
"But  everyone  tried  to  give  a  more  gorgeous  ball 
than  the  last  until  no  one  could  afford  to  give  them  at 
home  any  more." 

We  dined  outside  on  the  terrace  near  a  fountain. 
The  war  seemed  far  away,  and  Berlin  farther  yet. 
Later,  we  went  to  a  cafe  chantant  and  to  another  little 
place  on  the  same  order,  where  they  danced.  I 
thought  of  how  one  had  to  shut  the  windows  in  Ger- 
many for  fear  of  being  seen  dancing,  and  I  was  over- 
joyed to  know  I  was  sitting  in  a  box  in  a  Hungarian 
cafe,  with  four  new  friends  who  were  merry  and  full 


182  An  Uncensored  Diary 

of  laughter  and  carelessness.  How  much  nearer 
the  American  temperament  is  to  the  Hungarian  than 
to  the  Prussian! 

The  Hungarians  have  suffered  enormously  in  this 
war;  their  losses  have  been  cruel,  but  the  lightness  of 
their  spirit  is  still  there.  It's  a  quality  which  makes 
one  love  them — this  power  of  being  able  to  laugh  in 
the  midst  of  sorrow. 

August  28th, 

Count  Apponyi  came  this  morning  to  take  us  to  see 
hospitals.     As  I  greeted  him,  he  said : 

"Well,  it  seems  war  is  declared." 

"No!"  I  cried,  as  my  own  country  flashed  into  my 
mind. 

"Yes,  since  nine  o'clock  last  night,  Rumania  has 
been  at  war  with  us.  When  Italy  declared  war  on 
Germany  yesterday,  I  was  sure  it  was  coming.  Even 
so,  it  is  a  shock  when  it  happens." 

Then  Billy  came  down  and  was  much  excited  to 
hear  the  news.  When  the  Central  Powers  sent  a 
warning  to  Rumania,  Billy  declared  there  would  be 
war  in  two  weeks.  It's  rather  queer  that  there  was 
war  in  just  two  weeks. 

"There  are  our  two  allies,  Italy  and  Rumania,  now 


An  Uncensored  Diary  183 

fighting  against  us/'  said  Apponyi.  "One  more  or 
less,  what  does  it  matter!  We  are  now  completely 
surrounded.  And  the  filthy  way  the  swine  declared 
war!  They  sent  in  their  declaration  on  Sunday 
evening,  when  they  knew  the  Foreign  OflSce  was 
closed.  It's  a  wonder  any  one  was  there  to  open  it. 
And  at  the  moment  the  declaration  was  due  to  be  de- 
livered, the  Rumanians  started  firing  on  our  troops! 
It  must  have  been  impossible  for  hours  to  get  word 
along  our  line  that  a  new  war  had  begun.  Our  men 
had  strict  orders  not  to  fire  under  any  conditions.  It 
is  simply  too  disgusting." 

Billy  and  I  hastily  agreed  that  it  was  disgusting. 
One  likes  the  Hungarians  so  much  that  a  calamity  to 
them  seems  a  calamity  to  all. 

**To  think,"  Apponyi  went  on,  "that  only  the  day 
before  yesterday,  the  King  of  Rumania  told  our  Min- 
ister that  he  was  sure  neutral  relations  would  be  pre- 
served! The  declaration  of  war  was  written  instead 
of  telegraphed — it  was  in  Vienna  when  the  Rumanian 
King  said  that  to  our  Minister." 

Every  Hungarian  we  met  that  day  spoke  only  of 
the  Rumanians  as  swine  and  dogs. 

This  makes  the  thirtieth  declaration  of  war.  Will 
the  madness  never  stop? 


184  An  Uncensored  Diary 

The  Hungarians  say  they  will  not  let  Transylvania 
go  until  every  Hungarian  is  killed.  I  cannot  see  how 
the  Allies  will  reconcile  themselves  to  giving  all 
Transylvania  and  Bukowina  to  Rumania  if  they 
are  victorious,  and  yet  we  hear  they  have  promised  it 
to  her.  This  business  of  bribing  a  nation  to  fall  on 
another's  back  takes  away  what  honour  there  ever 
was  in  war. 

We  went  this  morning  to  an  invalid  hospital, 
where  soldiers  who  had  lost  an  arm  or  a  leg  were 
learning  to  use  their  mechanical  limbs.  They  formed 
in  a  long  line  and  went  through  an  obstacle  race, 
only  no  one  did  any  racing.  It  makes  one's  heart 
ache  to  see  them.  They  smiled  and  even  laughed 
as  they  tried  to  get  around  an  obstacle  with  their 
steel  legs.  Then  they  formed  in  a  ring  and  kicked  a 
football,  an  excellent  thing  they  say  to  teach  them 
balance. 

We  went  all  through  the  place  where  they  make 
the  legs  and  arms.  For  each  man  they  make  a 
working  leg  and  a  Sunday  leg.  The  working  leg  has 
a  small  wooden  foot  on  the  end  about  six  inches  long, 
jointless  and  rounded  at  both  ends,  like  a  rocker. 
The  Sunday  leg  is  very  elaborate.  It  has  a  jointed 
foot,  fitted  into  a  shoe,  the  leg  is  rounded  out  with 


An  Uncensored  Diary  185 

leather  and  the  man  walks  with  scarcely  a  limp.  For 
the  false  arms,  there  are  hundreds  of  different  de- 
vices, which  the  man  can  screw  into  place  himself 
quite  simply.  These  devices  enable  him  to  do  nearly 
everything  a  real  hand  and  arm  can  do.  The  outfits 
are  given  the  men  by  the  State.  The  Hungarian 
doctors  have  been  so  inventive  in  this  that  German 
doctors  continually  come  dow^n  here  to  copy  the 
newest  instruments.  As  the  Hungarians  say,  when  a 
German  praises,  they  may  indeed  believe  they  have 
done  something.  In  the  hospital  for  blind  soldiers 
they  are  also  teaching  the  men  trades.  They  make 
carpets  and  brushes  and  baskets  of  all  sorts.  They 
learn  how^  to  typewrite,  and  to  operate  a  telephone 
exchange.  I  was  surprised  to  learn  how  few  blind 
there  were,  only  240  Hungarians. 

August  29th. 

At  ten-thirty  this  morning,  the  telephone  rang. 
I  went. 

"This  is  Graf  Apponyi,"  I  heard. 

"Oh,  hello,"  said  I,  gaily.    "How  are  you  to-day.^" 

He  said  he  had  come  to  see  Mr.  Bullitt. 

"What  made  you  get  up  so  early?  "  I  asked,  think- 
ing it  was  one  of  the  young  Apponyis  whom  we  knew. 


<<  I 


<C' 


<<' 


18G  An  Uncensored  Diary 

Billy  went  to  the  telephone  and  came  back,  saying 
it  was  Count  Albert  Apponyi,  and  that  he  said  he 
would  come  back  in  an  hour. 

"I'm  going  to  get  up  at  six-thirty  every  day  now 
for  fear  the  Prime  Minister  will  also  call  before  I'm 
dressed,"  declared  Billy. 

The  telephone  rang  again. 

"Good-morning,"  said  a  man's  voice  in  a  Hungar- 
ian accent. 

Good-morning,"  I  answered  amiably. 

Is  that  you,  madame?"  the  voice  went  on. 

Well,"  I  said,  "I  don't  know  whether  it  is  or  not." 

"What.f^"  asked  the  voice. 

"I  said  I  didn't  know  whether  it  was  I  or  not. 
Who  do  you  think  it  is.^  That  makes  some  dif- 
ference." 

"Mrs.  Bullitt,"  answered  the  Hungarian  accent. 
"ThisisMr.  Lazar." 

"Oh,"  I  replied  with  no  sign  of  recognition  in  my 
tones. 

"I  do  not  think  you  remember  me,"  the  gentleman 
said  politely.  "You  dined  with  me  at  the  Park 
Club  the  first  night  you  came!" 

"Oh,  Mr.  Drasche-Lazar ! "  I  cried,  at  last  growing 
a  trifle  more  intelligent.     Hungarian  names  are  so 


An  Uncensored  Diary  187 

diflBcult,  I  always  have  to  think  about  them  before  I 
recognize  them.  The  upshot  of  the  conversation 
was  that  Count  Tisza  would  see  Billy  in  a  few  days. 

We  went  downstairs  and  found  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Cardeza.  They  are  Americans  from  Philadelphia. 
Mr.  Cardeza  is  Mr.  Penfield*s  secretary,  and  Mrs. 
Cardeza  is  in  the  Red  Cross.  She  has  nursed  at  the 
Hungarian  front  ever  since  the  war  began  and  has 
done  wonderful  work.  She  has  been  decorated 
several  times.  Everyone  says  she  is  as  tireless  as  she 
is  fearless.  Poland,  she  told  me,  was  in  a  woeful 
state. 

Count  Albert  Apponyi  came  in  later.  He  is  one  of 
the  finest  people  I  ever  met — tall,  with  gray  hair  and 
a  gray  beard  and  moustache,  a  lean  figure,  and  a 
high-bred  bony  face;  he  looks  rather  like  a  very 
aristocratic  Uncle  Sam,  and  his  manners  are  like 
Colonel  Newcome's. 

"I  am  not  wanting  in  hospitality,"  said  he.  "I  got 
home  only  last  night  or  I  should  have  come  before." 

After  all,  one  does  not  expect  one  of  the  busiest 
men  in  Hungary  to  call  on  two  young  people  of  whom 
he  never  heard  before,  but  the  Hungarians  are  really 
the  most  polite  people  I  ever  saw. 

Billy  had  an  interesting  talk  with  him.      He  takes 


188  An  Uncensored  Diary 

the  entrance  of  Rumania  into  the  war  very  seriously, 
but  says  it  will  spur  the  Hungarians  to  harder  fight- 
ing. He  thinks  the  "  ungentlemanly  "  way  in  which 
Rumania  attacked  has  stirred  the  people  to  real  fury. 
Of  Germany,  he  said:  "One  of  the  best  things  we 
have  in  this  war  is  the  realization  that  our  great  ally 
will  stand  by  us  with  all  his  forces  and  be  faithful 
to  the  death.  And  we  two,  Austria  and  Hungary, 
do  not  consider  for  one  moment  making  a  separate 
peace  which  would  save  our  own  skins  but  sacrifice 
our  ally.  Hungarians  are  not  Italians  or  Rumanians. 
We  do  not  break  our  word." 

This  is  a  thing  one  feels  strongly  in  Hungary. 
They  have  a  high  sense  of  honour,  and  there  are 
certain  things  which  they  agree  it  is  better  to  die 
than  do.  The  German  point  of  view  on  such  mat- 
ters is  rather  different.  For  instance,  this  is  part 
of  a  conversation  Billy  had  with  one  of  the  most 
important  officials  in  the  German  Government: 

"Would  you,  in  order  to  make  a  separate  peace 
with  Russia,  promise  her  Constantinople.^"  asked 
Billy. 

"We  might,"  he  answered. 

"Would  it  not  be  rather  hard  to  throw  over  the 
Turks?"  Billy  went  on. 


An  Uncensared  Diary  189 

"No,"  said  the  German.  "We  would  only  have 
to  publish  full  accounts  of  the  Armenian  massacres, 
and  German  public  opinion  would  become  so  in- 
censed against  the  Turks  that  we  could  drop  them  as 
allies." 

Apponyi  thinks  Andrassy  should  replace  Burian 
as  joint  foreign  minister.  Not  to  have  an  Ambas- 
sador in  the  United  States,  he  declares  to  be  abso- 
lutely wrong. 

"President  Wilson  wants  one  and  has  offered  to 
send  a  warship  for  him,"  said  he. 

Count  Andrdssy  told  Billy  that  Apponyi  himself 
should  be  sent.  Certainly  America  would  be  the 
gainer  if  this  should  be,  and  Austria-Hungary  would 
be  better  represented  than,  to  my  knowledge,  it  has 
ever  been. 

Count  Apponyi  has  fought  all  his  life  to  have 
universal  suffrage  in  Hungary,  and  he  now  says  he 
believes  Count  Tisza,  who  has  always  been  against 
it,  will  have  to  grant  it  to  the  men  who  have  fought 
for  Hungary.  Apponyi  says  the  Austrian  Parlia- 
ment should  be  allowed  to  sit — it  hasn't  been  called 
since  the  war,  and  the  responsibility  for  the  Hun- 
garian Parliament,  as  the  only  mouthpiece  of  the 
government,  is  too  great.      He  also  said  they  did  not 


190  An  Uncensored  Diary 

want  to  annex  Serbia,  or  to  crush  her  independence, 
and  that  the  Hungarians  admired  Serbia's  spirit 
immensely.  Of  course,  I'd  like  to  know  how  greatly 
the  independence  of  Serbia  was  being  considered 
when  Austria  sent  the  note.  The  note  was  written 
by  Count  Tisza. 

Hungary  declares  that  Russia  is  her  great  enemy, 
and  Count  Apponyi  doesn't  understand  why  England 
should  apparently  contemplate  allowing  Russia  to 
become  larger  still,  since  she  has  always  considered 
Russia  her  ultimate  enemy.  He  does  not  see  any 
definite  way  in  which  a  lasting  peace  may  be  made 
from  the  war,  although  he  wishes  greatly  it  might 
be.  They  speak  of  a  "free  Poland."  It's  rather 
hard  to  know  what  that  means,  but  it  probably  means 
a  free  Russian  Poland,  with  Austria-Hungary  as  over- 
lord, or  a  free  Russian  Poland  as  a  third  part  of  the 
Austro-Hungarian  monarchy — that  is,  triality  in- 
stead of  dualism  for  the  Empire. 

August  30th. 

Billy  found  our  bathroom  locked  this  morning, 
when  his  desires  were  centred  on  a  shave.  Splash- 
ings  were  heard  within.  Billy  rang  irately  for  the 
maid. 


(( : 


<( 


An  Uncensored  Diary  191 

"Who  is  in  my  bath  tub?"  demanded  he. 
The  Prince,"  said  the  chambermaid. 
What  Prince?"  asked  Bill. 

"The  Prince  of  Thurn  und  Taxis,"  answered  she. 

"Will  you  please  throw  him  out  of  the  bath  tub?" 
asked  Bill. 

"I  can't,"  said  the  maid. 

Billy  made  a  dive  for  his  clothes. 

"Where  are  you  going?"  I  asked. 

"I  won't  have  a  prince  in  my  bath  tub,"  said  he; 
"I'm  paying  for  it!" 

"He  got  up  earlier  than  you  did,"  said  I.  "Be 
reasonable." 

"Don't  ask  me  to  be  reasonable,"  he  answered, 
jamming  his  hat  on  his  head  and  disappearing  around 
the  corridor.  "It  would  spoil  the  effect  of  the  scene 
I'm  going  to  make." 

In  a  few  moments  the  management  was  to  be  heard 
mounting  the  stairs  with  hurried  feet,  and  the  Prince 
was  ousted. 

A  party  of  us  lunched  on  native  dishes  at  a  Hun- 
garian restaurant.  As  a  result,  nearly  everyone  was 
ill  but  myself.  The  youngest  Apponyi  brother  was 
there,  back  from  the  front,  to  attend  the  House  of 
Lords.     Mrs.  Cardeza  said  he'd  been  on  patrol  work 


192  An  Uncensored  Diary 

all  through  the  war,  as  he  was  such  a  wonderful  marks- 
man, having  hunted  all  his  life — now  his  game  was 
Russians  and  Serbians.  He  uses  a  telescopic  sight  on 
his  rifle  and  is  said  to  be  a  dead  shot. 

September  M. 

Turkey  and  Bulgaria  have  declared  war  on  Ru- 
mania. Of  course  it  was  the  only  decent  thing  for 
them  to  do.  The  refugees  fron  Transylvania  are  al- 
ready pouring  into  Hungary,  and  the  Rumanians  are 
advancing  fast.  On  Friday  night,  at  dinner.  Count 
Teleki,  of  the  General  Staff,  told  Billy  that  there 
were  only  eight  thousand  troops  protecting  the  Ru- 
manian border  when  Rumania  declared  war.  Many 
here  think  that  they  will  be  able  to  drive  this  new 
enemy  out  in  a  few  weeks;  the  chances  of  this  seem 
slim  now. 

More  hospitals  with  Apponyi  this  morning.  I  feel 
as  if  every  man  in  Hungary  lacked  an  arm  or  a  leg,  or 
had  a  bad  body-wound  somewhere.  We  went  to  the 
big  nerve  hospital,  where  1,200  men  were  being  cured 
of  nerve  wounds.  The  place  is  crowded.  Three 
operations  were  going  on  in  the  same  room  at  once. 
Men  were  sitting  in  rows  in  the  corridors,  waiting  to 
be  dressed;  the  massage  rooms  were  full;  the  exercise- 


An  Uncensored  Diary  193 

rooms,  with  their  queer  machines  for  exercising  fin- 
gers, arms,  or  wrists,  backs,  legs,  or  shoulders  which 
have  become  stiff  through  wounds,  were  occupied  by 
men  doing  their  often  painful  daily  tasks.  In  other 
rooms,  X-ray  treatment  was  being  given,  electric  baths 
taken,  wounds  which  would  not  heal  exposed  to  the 
ultra-violet  ray;  past  open  doors  anaesthetized  men 
were  wheeled  silently.  I  never  saw  a  hospital  which 
appeared  to  be  working  at  such  speed. 

We  saw  another  hospital  where  nerve  shock  is 
treated.  Men  come  in  un wounded  but  shaking  so 
they  cannot  stand.  They  are  given  a  severe  electric 
shock  and  are  able  to  take  up  their  beds  and 
walk.  These  men  can  never  go  back  to  the  front. 
At  the  sound  of  the  first  shell,  they  fall  to  pieces 
again.  In  still  another  hospital  men  with  bad 
muscle  w^ounds  w^re  taken.  In  connection  w^ith  this 
are  hot  mineral  baths,  which  the  doctor  told  us  had 
great  restorative  powers  for  stiff  and  helpless  muscles. 

After  seeing  all  these  wounded  men,  Billy  and  I 
would  indeed  have  been  depressed,  if  we  had  not  gone 
also  to  the  workshops  in  connection  with  the  hospit- 
als, where  these  men  were  learning  trades.  As  long 
as  a  man  has  one  arm,  I  believe  there  is  little  he  can- 
not learn  to  do.     Watch-makers,  carpenters,  sign- 


194  An  Uncensored  Diary 

painters,  tailors,  architects,  builders,  shoe-makers, 
blacksmiths,  who  had  never  done  the  like  before,  were 
industriously  working  away.  The  State  takes  it 
upon  itself  to  see  that  the  men  get  jobs.  The  teach- 
ing is,  of  course,  quite  free.  Seventy  per  cent,  of  the 
men  who  make  the  orthopaedic  shoes,  the  legs,  and 
arms,  and  body-supports  for  the  wounded  men,  are 
themselves  invalids. 

September  3d, 

We  went  to  a  sitting  of  the  House  of  Lords.  About 
all  I  can  intelligently  say  is  that  Hungarian  is  a 
musical  language  to  listen  to. 

I  was  interested  to  see  Count  Tisza,  the  strongest 
man  in  Austria-Hungary  to-day.  It  is  common 
knowledge  that  Berchtold  was  only  a  tool  of  Tisza's, 
and  that  Burian,  the  present  Foreign  Minister,  is 
another..  The  Minister  President  is  of  another  type 
entirely  from  Count  Apponyi — a  closely  built  figure 
with  a  brusque  manner  of  speech  and  little  considera- 
tion or  patience  for  the  slow  or  stupid,  he  is  a  perfect 
example  of  the  "strong  man." 

Tisza  spoke  on  the  entrance  of  Rumania  into  the 
war.  He  could  make  little  excuse  for  the  scarcity  of 
troops  on  the  Rumanian  border.     I  imagine  it  was  be- 


An  Uncensored  Diary  195 

cause  they  did  not  have  the  men,  but  of  course  Tisza 
could  not  say  that  in  Parliament.  A  leading  member 
of  the  opposition  answered  him,  one  of  the  many 
Count  Szechenyi's.  After  that,  no  one  listened  to 
the  speeches. 

Hungarians  seem  to  me  at  once  the  most  demo- 
cratic and  the  most  snobbish  of  people.  They  shake 
hands  with  the  cook  and  are  on  friendly  terms  with 
the  coachman,  yet  the  twenty-five  or  thirty  families 
who  rule  Hungary  object  to  any  addition  to  the 
aristocracy,  and  resent  an  intrusion  of  the  people 
upon  their  feudal  rights.  The  Hungarian  noblemen 
hate  the  Jews  bitterly  and  say  they  are  ruining  every 
gentleman  in  Hungary. 

They  are  delightfully  high-handed.  One  man  told 
me  that  he  had  been  so  late  a  few  days  before  that  he 
had  had  to  keep  the  train  waiting  two  hours  for  him. 
Another  said  he  had  been  out  hunting  and,  wishing  to 
get  home  in  a  hurry,  had  built  a  fire  in  the  middle  of 
the  railroad  track,  and  stopped  the  express. 

The  internal  affairs  of  Hungary  are  too  involved  to 
grasp  in  a  short  while.  Only  those  who  have  spent  a 
lifetime  in  the  study  of  this  conglomerate  nation  fully 
understand  the  difficulties  of  governing  the  many 
different  peoples  within  their  borders. 


196  An  Uncensored  Diary 

Billy  has  seen  Count  Tisza.  The  interview  was 
startling  but  cannot  be  put  down. 

Vienna,  September  5th. 

We  lunched  at  our  Embassy  to-day.  Mr.  Penfield 
is  a  most  original  character.  Mrs.  Penfield  is  always 
doing  nice  things  for  people,  and  they  are  both  ex- 
ceedingly hospitable. 

We  leave  for  Berlin  the  day  after  to-morrow.  It  will 
be  queer  to  be  under  severe  regulation  again.  If  any 
one  asks  for  a  bread  card  here,  one  acts  as  if  one  were 
insulted  and  the  waiter  apologizes  profusely  and 
rushes  to  bring  the  bread.  We  asked  them  how  they 
could  afford  to  serve  so  much  food,  and  they  said: 
"Oh,  we  can't  economize  like  the  Germans.  We  w^ill 
eat  until  there  is  no  more  food,  and  then  we  will  stop, 
but  we  can't  make  ourselves  miserable  with  thinking 
about  it  all  the  time." 

Berlin,  September  15th. 

1  have  been  reading  Wells's  book,  "What  Is 
Coming."  Much  of  it  is  based  on  the  idea  that 
there  will  be  a  revolution  in  Germany,  and  that  the 
Hohenzollerns  will  be  forced  to  abdicate  by  an  en- 
raged populace  and  a  republic  established.      Now,  if 


An  Uncensored  Diary  197 

there  is  one  thing  there  will  not  be  in  Germany,  it  is  a 
revolution.  It  is  the  last  country  in  which  such  a 
thing  is  likely  to-day.  The  German  people  have 
seen  many  a  war  fought  on  their  soil,  without  think- 
ing a  dynasty  must  be  heaved  out  as  a  result  of  it. 
They  have  sacrificed  their  comfort,  their  riches,  and 
their  sons  before  this.  In  the  Thirty  Years'  War, 
they  saw  their  fifteen-year-old  sons  go  out  to  fight, 
and  they  stayed  in  their  homes  doing  what  they  could 
besides,  to  help  their  country.  I  think  the  outside 
world  still  believes  the  Germans  will  awake  some 
day,  and  in  wrath  declare  they  have  been  made  dupes 
by  their  Emperor  and  led  into  a  war  which  he  might 
have  stopped  had  he  wished. 

In  the  first  place,  the  outside  world  could  not  pos- 
sibly convince  the  German  people  of  anything  their 
government  denied,  or  did  not  wish  them  to  believe. 
The  German  people  know  no  better  than  the  people 
of  any  other  country  exactly  why  this  war  is  being 
fought  but  they  think  they  know  and  they  believe, 
with  all  the  strength  of  unalterable  conviction,  that 
they  were  attacked  by  the  whole  European  world. 
It  would  be  quite  as  impossible  to  convince  the  Bel- 
gians that  they  were  responsible  for  the  war  as  it 
would  be  to  convince  the  Germans,  and  to  convince  a 


198  An  Uncensored  Diary 

people  that  they  were  needlessly  sacrificing  them- 
selves for  a  fictitious  ideal  would  be  the  only  way 
to  rouse  them  to  start  a  movement  against  their 
leaders. 

In  the  second  place,  the  German  people  will  not  try 
to  overthrow  the  Hohenzollerns,  for  more  than  one 
reason.  The  Emperor  is  popular.  The  people  like  a 
king,  and  would  have  no  use  whatever  for  a  presi- 
dent. They  like  the  glamour  of  a  court  and  a  royal 
family,  and  would  take  no  satisfaction  in  anything 
less  imposing.  But  more  important  than  the  popu- 
larity of  the  Hohenzollerns  is  the  fact  that  the  Em- 
peror is  not  the  autocrat  the  world  imagines  him,  and 
Germany  knows  it.  Constitutionally  great  as  is  his 
power  as  head  of  the  army  and  navy,  and  as  King  of 
Prussia,  he  is  not  omnipotent.  The  Emperor's  per- 
sonality is  powerful,  but  so  are  the  personalities  of  the 
other  chiefs  of  the  Empire — Von  Bethmann-Hollweg, 
Hindenburg,  Helfferich,  Zimmermann,  and  Von 
Jagow.  The  Emperor  cannot  do  just  as  he  pleases 
with  all  of  them  any  more  than  his  grandfather  could 
do  just  as  he  pleased  with  Bismarck.  Added  to  this 
— which  most  of  the  world  would  not  believe — the  Em- 
peror is  considered  by  his  people  not  in  the  least 
warlike;  they  think  of  him  as  a  man  to  whom  war  is 


All  Unceiisored  Diary  199 

disagreeable  and  far  from  desirable.  But  whatever  his 
people  and  those  who  know  him  personally  think  him 
to  be,  the  outside  world  (which  does  not  know  him) 
still  imagines  that,  single-handed  and  alone,  with 
aggressive  nationalism  on  the  brain,  he  led  his  unsus- 
pecting people  into  a  disgusting,  dripping  war.  That 
sounds  wild  and  writes  up  brilliantly  in  the  news- 
papers, but  it's  stale,  and  unrefreshing  as  news,  when 
one  sees  the  Emperor  actually  has  nothing  like  the 
power  his  enemies  believe  he  has. 

Another  thing  which  Wells  does  not  take  into 
account  is  the  amazing  solidarity  of  the  German 
people  about  the  essential  thing,  of  not  allowing  the 
Allies  to  win  the  war  while  they  have  an  ounce  of 
strength  left  to  prevent  it.  There  are  different 
parties  in  Germany,  certainly.  There  are  the  more 
or  less  violent  ones  who  shout  for  annexation;  there 
are  the  Tirpitzers,  who  blow  about  U-boats,  and  say; 
"  Who  cares  if  we  get  into  a  fight  with  America,  any- 
way?" there  are  the  saner  ones,  who  want  only  terri- 
torial integrity,  and  to  these  the  government  seems 
to  belong;  there  are  the  Socialists,  who  like  Sudekum 
instead  of  starting  a  revolution,  are  loyally  support- 
ing the  government.  Liebknecht  is  in  jail,  Bern- 
stein is  old  and  mild  and  gentle,  and  it  is  a  simple 


200  An  U licensor ed  Diary 

matter  to  suppress  his  articles  or  forbid  him  the  use  of 
a  hall  in  which  to  speak.  Taking  it  all  in  all,  the  Ger- 
man people,  not  the  leaders  of  the  people,  show  a 
unity,  a  solidarity,  and  loyalty  and  strength  of 
patriotism  that  it  would  be  hard  to  surpass.  Added 
to  this,  they  have  the  habit,  as  have  no  other  people, 
of  obeyiyig.  Orders  which  would  make  a  Frenchman 
or  an  Englishman  or  an  American  snort  with  rage,  are 
carried  out  unquestioningly.  I  suppose  this  quality 
of  obeying  is  one  of  the  things  people  mean  by  "Ger- 
man Militarism.'*  If  the  whole  German  army  were 
to  be  abolished,  I  doubt  if  it  would  speedily  change 
the  nature  of  the  people.  If  their  qualities  and  in- 
herent characteristics  had  not  been  what  they  are, 
they  could  not  have  developed  their  army  into  the 
efficient  automaton  it  is.  But  then,  I  suppose,  to 
discuss  whether  the  German  people  as  they  are  to- 
day are  a  result  of  an  army,  or  an  army  the  result  of 
the  people,  is  like  the  hen-or-the-egg  problem. 
Without  an  army,  they  would  still  be  the  hardest 
workers,  and  the  most  thorough;  their  industrial  life 
would  still  be  as  highly  organized — their  social  legis- 
lation as  efficient;  reverence  for  the  law  would  con- 
tinue, and  obedience  to  a  superior  still  be  the  habit. 
It's  in  the  blood  for  the  whole  nation  to  work  as  an 


An  Uncensored  Diary  201 

army;  to  abolish  German  militarism  would  be  to  put 
an  end  to  the  German  nation,  which  is  certainly  not 
desirable. 

Berlin,  September  16th. 

Flags  were  out  a  week  ago  for  the  iBrst  victory  over 
the  Rumanians.  There  is  another  reported  to-night 
which  seems  to  mean  a  far  greater  victory.  That 
the  English  and  French  have  made  gains  is  only  to  be 
expected,  as  Hindenburg's  policy,  like  Napoleon's, 
has  all  along  been  to  whip  the  weaker  enemy  first,  and 
hold  the  stronger  with  a  weakened  force.  For  the 
few  miles  he  loses  in  the  west,  he  will  probably  gain 
hundreds  in  the  east — whither  the  great  General 
Headquarters  have  been  moved. 

Many  say  the  Chancellor  will  be  far  stronger  now 
with  Hindenburg  as  Chief  of  Staff.  Falkenhayn  and 
Bethmann-Hollweg  worked  badly  together.  They 
say  Falkenhayn  was  self-seeking.  None  say  so  of 
Hindenburg.  Hindenburg  is  honest,  unassuming,  a 
brilliant  general,  and  a  loyal  supporter  of  the 
Chancellor.  The  separation  of  the  military  and 
the  political  authority  of  the  Empire  is  certainly 
much  less  great  as  a  result  of  Hindenburg's  appoint- 
ment. 


202  An  Uncensored  Diary 

September  17  th. 

Have  to  send  my  diary  to-morrow  to  the  Foreign 
OflBce  to  be  censored,  so  I  shall  not  be  able  to  write 
any  more.  All  our  papers  have  to  go  ahead  of  us  to 
Copenhagen  by  the  courier  from  the  Foreign  OflSce.  I 
do  nothing  but  take  things  down  there.  We  have 
volumes  of  pamphlets,  all  Billy's  notes,  books  of 
statistics,  etc. — not  to  mention  my  magnum  opus. 
Yesterday  I  told  Doctor  Rodiger  that,  if  he  cut  a  word 
out  of  it,  I  should  come  back  and  finish  him  with  an 
axe.  He  promised  that  it  should  not  be  touched. 
Poor  man,  we  do  give  him  so  much  trouble  and  he  is 
so  nice  about  it.  As  a  final  piece  of  impudence,  I 
handed  in  what  was  left  of  the  box  of  hair  tonic  we 
had  recovered  from  the  frontier.  They  are  sending  it ! 
I  think  the  German  Foreign  Office  is  most  obliging. 

Billy  has  just  had  a  second  long  talk  with  Von 
Jagow.  Food  is  getting  scarcer.  You  are  supposed 
to  get  only  one  egg  a  week.  No  more  butter  is  served 
on  the  table,  which  makes  breakfast  rather  dreary, 
and  milk  cannot  be  bought  for  children  over  six  years 
old  except  by  a  doctor's  prescription.  The  city  is 
making  plans  for  Municipal  Kitchens  on  a  large  scale. 

These  last  two  weeks  have  produced  nothing  more 
exciting  than  a  series  of  luncheons. 


An  Uncensored  Diary  203 

There  were  quite  a  number  of  people  at  lunch  at  the 
Embassy  yesterday.  Last  Sunday  there  were  only  Mr. 
Horstmann,  the  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Croy,  and  our- 
selves. We  were  late  and  the  Ambassador  rebuked 
me  severely.  I  got  even  with  him  for  it  yesterday, 
however. 

Our  very  good  friend  Noeggerath  came  to  say 
good-bye  to  us.  We  shall  miss  our  twenty -four  hour 
discussions  with  him. 

Copenhagen,  September  28th. 

They  behaved  beautifully  *at  the  frontier.  We 
found  all  our  things  here  from  the  Foreign  Office. 
It  must  have  hurt  the  censor's  feelings  cruelly  to  let 
my  diary  by.  He  put  crosses  and  exclamation  points 
down  all  the  margins.  I  wish  I  might  have  kept 
a  really  frank  diary.  Billy's  notes  were  cut  to  rib- 
bons, and  he  is  in  a  rage.  Fortunately,  I  have  in  this 
diary  duplicates  of  a  number  of  things  he  wants. 

Billy  has  learned  from  the  German  Foreign  Office 
itself  that  German  officials  received  the  Austro- 
Hungarian  note  to  Serbia  fourteen  hours  before  it 
was  presented  in  Belgrade  This  fact  has  been 
persistently  denied  by  every  German,  official  or 
unofficial,  we  have  met.     The  Foreign   Office  says 


204  All  Uncensored  Diary 

it  did  not  have  time  enough  to  decide  what  it  must 
do  to  avert  the  consequences  the  note  obviously 
would  produce. 

Must  we  have  wars,  then,  because  statesmen  are 
unable  to  make  up  their  minds  between  eight  in  the 
evening  and  ten  the  next  morning? 

Last  night  we  went  to  a  dinner  which  the  Egans 
gave  for  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gerard.  We  thought  it  was 
going  to  be  very  small,  with  only  one  or  two  people 
besides  the  de  Hagermann-Lindencrones  and  Mrs. 
Ripka,  but  the  Swedish  Minister  and  his  wife  were 
there,  and  Mrs.  Morris,  the  wife  of  the  American 
Minister  in  Stockholm,  and  the  American  attaches 
here,  and  Count  Szechenyi  and  Prince  Witgenstein, 
so  it  was  quite  a  formal  affair.  All  the  rules  of  pre- 
cedence were  followed,  Mme.  de  Hagermann  going  in 
first  with  Mr.  Egan. 

The  complications  of  social  life  in  neutral  countries 
are  great.  I  would  not  for  anything  be  the  servant 
who  opens  the  door.  If  a  French  woman  comes  to  tea 
and  then  one  of  the  ladies  belonging  to  the  Central 
Powers  comes,  the  man  has  to  say  his  mistress  is  not 
at  home.  He  has  to  know  everyone  and  just  what 
country  they  come  from,  for  none  of  the  enemy  diplo- 
mats speak.    A  French  woman  and  a  German  woman 


An  Uncensored  Diary  205 

did  get  mixed  up  yesterday  at  Mrs.  Totten's  at  tea, 
but  they  were  perfectly  polite  to  each  other.  There 
are  special  days  at  the  tennis  club  for  the  different 
countries.     It's  very  amusing. 

Now  I  have  come  to  the  end.  I  am  going  to 
America  and  that  is  the  only  thing  in  the  world  that 
matters  to  me  to-day. 


THE   END 


THE  COUNTRY  LIFE  PRESS 
GARDEN  CITY,  N.  Y. 


DUE  DATE 


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